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Dead Stars Tell of Rocky Planets
[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]

If we want to learn more about our planet and other planets in the universe, we can get some help from stars that are long dead and gone. That’s what U.C.L.A.’s Michael Jura said at the American Astronomical Society meeting January 5th. His team used observations from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope to investigate dead white dwarf stars.

Jobs' Health Message Makes Little Sense, Experts Say
Scientists weigh in on Steve Jobs' recent statement that he has a hormonal imbalance that has caused him to lose weight. What little detail is in the statement is contradictory, they say, and could indicate anything from hyperthyroidism to multiple myeloma.

The Milky Weigh Galaxy
One of the unnerving aspects of astronomy as a science is how astronomers continue to argue over measurements you’d have thought they settled long ago. A good recent example is the mass of our own Milky Way galaxy. Estimates keep swinging back and forth, and our galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy periodically switch places as the alpha galaxy of the local cosmos. A new study suggests that astronomers may finally be starting to converge on a consensus--and, in a counterexample to the usual trend of relegating humanity to the cosmic backwaters, our Milky Way looks like the bigger one after all. (My colleague Steve Mirsky also describes the study on today’s podcast.)

To weigh the Milky Way, Mark Reid of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and his colleagues tracked the motion of bright gaseous clouds in 12 star-forming regions scattered over the galaxy. They observed the clouds with the Very Long Baseline Array, a network of radio telescopes stretching from Hawaii to St. Croix which work in unison as a single planet-sized telescope. The network is so sharp-eyed that it can see clouds on the other side of the galaxy inching across the sky. The team combined these observations with measurements of the Doppler effect to deduce the clouds’ full three-dimensional orbital velocity: 254 +/– 16 kilometers per second.

What is Kawasaki syndrome?
Doctors today performed an autopsy on Jett Travolta, the 16-year-old son of actors John Travolta and Kelly Preston, who died Friday. The results were not immediately released, but family attorney Michael Ossi told TMZ that the teen died after suffering a seizure and hitting his head on a bathtub or toilet seat in the family's home in the Bahamas, where they were spending the holidays. 

Preston said six years ago that Jett became very ill at age two and was diagnosed with Kawasaki syndrome, a rare inflammatory condition most common in young children. She and Travolta blamed Kawasaki syndrome for what they described as Jett's developmental disabilities, according to CNN.

Sharpest infrared image of Milky Way's core unveiled
The sharpest infrared picture yet taken of the roiling furnace at the galaxy's centre reveals a new population of massive stars

Apple's Steve Jobs: "Hormone Imbalance" Has Caused Health Problems
Apple co-founder and chief executive Steve Jobs posted an open letter to customers on his company's Web site today in which he says that he's being treated for an unspecified "hormone imbalance" that has caused severe weight loss and kept him out of the public eye. Jobs's letter is short on details, making it difficult to figure out the actual disorder that he's battling, says Robert Lustig, professor of clinical pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. "There are three medical threads that run through the [letter], but unfortunately they don't form a strong cable," he says.

MySpace: All about sex, drugs and violence for teens, study says
More than half of teens on MySpace discuss or post images on their profiles of sex, drugs and violence, new research shows. But another study finds that reminding kids the info is public may tame the content they publish on the social-networking site.

Mars Exploration rovers just keep going and going...
When NASA's Spirit and Opportunity rovers touched down on Mars, they were each tapped for three-month missions exploring the Red Planet. But five years later, both are still moving, providing a bright spot at a tumultuous time for the space agency.

A steady stream of clues pointed to Ivins during FBI anthrax investigation
The trail that led to Bruce Ivins as the prime suspect in the 2001 deadly anthrax mailings ended when the government scientist died of a drug overdose in July as the FBI prepared to arrest him for the attacks. Six months later, the New York Times has published what it touted as "the deepest look so far at the investigation" of his role in the attacks based on interviewed with Ivins's friends, colleagues, anthrax experts and law enforcement officers involved in the probe.

Toyota to offer car powered by the sun?
Toyota won't just be adding solar panels to its popular Prius gas-electric hybrid car--like the solar electric conversion kit seen at left--it'll be powering a version of it exclusively via sunshine, according to The Nikkei, Japan's business newspaper. In fact, Toyota will be relying on the solar-electric car to "turn around its struggling business," which resulted in its first operating loss in more than 70 years, the Associated Press reports.

ScientificAmerican.com and other media outlets reported last summer that Toyota was planning to begin selling a Prius with some solar panels as early as May of this year. But the latest reports are that the Japanese automaker is seeking to build a totally solar-driven vehicle.

Dirty money: Can the flu be passed on dollar bills?
Wealth may not be the only thing people spread when they fork over funds. Researchers warn that banknotes may be reservoirs for the common flu virus. Researchers report in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology that human influenza viruses can survive on for as long as 17 days.

A Blind Man Sees
[Below is the original script. But a few changes may have been made during the recording of this audio podcast.]

Given that we just said goodbye to another year, we are all pretty familiar with the hindsight. But have you heard of blindsight?

Blight fears spark call for GM potato
The fungal disease that wiped out the potato crop in the mid-19th century, causing more than 1m deaths, is posing a renewed menace after a more aggressive strain arrived, according to a leading scientist. This has prompted experts to intensify work,

Darwin missed 'earliest' Galapagos species
A bizarre-looking yet ignored species of land iguana might be one of the earliest examples of species diversification in the Galapagos

Scientists can now differentiate between healthy cells and cancer cells
One of the current handicaps of cancer treatments is the difficulty of aiming these treatments at destroying malignant cells without killing healthy cells in the process. But a new study by McMaster University researchers has provided insight into how scientists might develop therapies and drugs that more carefully target cancer, while sparing normal healthy cells

Uncultured bacteria found in amniotic fluids of women who experience preterm births
Researchers from Case Western Reserve University and Yale University have made a significant advancement in understanding the cause behind why some pregnant women suffer from inflammations in the inner womb without any signs of an infection.

New insight into aggressive childhood cancer
A new study reveals critical molecular mechanisms associated with the development and progression of human neuroblastoma, the most common cancer in young children. The research, published by Cell Press in the January 6th issue of the journal Cancer Cell, may lead to development of future strategies for treatment of this aggressive and unpredictable cancer.

Breathing easier
If you're an asthma sufferer, make sure the medical history at your doctor's office includes your employment and recreation plans. A new screening tool developed by Tel Aviv University researchers may save you a trip to the emergency room later on.

Think You Know Your Dog? Put Your Nose to the Test
A good friend confessed to me the other day that she finds the “Frito-esque” aroma of the insides of her miniature poodle’s ears delectable. I immediately thought of Albert Camus’s semi-autobiographical novel The First Man, in which Camus describes his deaf uncle’s love affair with a “mongrel setter” named Brilliant. “They spoke in onomatopeia and relished each other’s smells,” wrote Camus of dog and man. “One must never tell [uncle] that his seldom-washed dog gave off a strong odor, especially after it had rained. ‘Him,’ he would say, ‘no smell,’ and he would lovingly sniff the inside of the dog’s big quivering ears.”

Now, as a dog owner, I wouldn’t necessarily say that I relish my dogs’ smells--particularly after they’ve perfumed themselves with the residue of badger droppings or the carcass of a small mammal. Yet I’m also not entirely offended by their otherwise unmasked scents and it would not be a stretch to say that I occasionally steal the same type of olfactory pleasures as Camus’s uncle. For whatever reason, I do not find Gulliver’s halitosis, a vaguely metallic odor mingled with meat, particularly nauseating. Nor does Uma’s chronic flatulence much disturb my nose. Were these odors emitted by another person, I would hasten to exit the room.

Milky Way Now in Larger Size!
[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]

We residents of the Milky Way should have a little extra skip in our step today. Turns out our home galaxy is much bigger and moving a lot faster than we previously thought. That’s what researchers from the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics reported January 5th at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

Star wars: Will NASA and the Pentagon work together under Obama?
President-elect Barack Obama may put NASA to work with the Defense Department to better compete in space.

Comparative analysis of processed ribosomal protein pseudogenes in four mammalian genomes
Background:The availability of genome sequences of numerous organisms allows comparative study of pseudogenes in syntenic regions. Conservation of pseudogenes suggests that they might have a functional role in some instances.Results:We report the first large-scale comparative analysis of ribosomal protein (RP) pseudogenes in four mammalian genomes (human, chimpanzee, mouse and rat). To this end, we have assigned these pseudogenes in the four organisms using an automated pipeline and make the results available online. Each organism has a large number of RP pseudogenes (~1400 to ~2800). The majority of them are processed (generated by retrotransposition). However, we do not see a correlation between the number of pseudogenes associated with a RP gene and its mRNA abundance. Analysis of pseudogenes in syntenic regions between species shows that most are conserved between human and chimpanzee, but very few are conserved between primates and rodents. Interestingly, syntenic pseudogenes have a lower rate of nucleotide substitution than their surrounding intergenic DNA. Moreover, evidence from ESTs indicates that two pseudogenes conserved between human and mouse are transcribed. Detailed analysis shows that one of them, the pseudogene of RPS27, is likely to be a protein-coding gene. This is significant as previous reports indicated there are exactly 80 RP genes encoded by the human genome.Conclusions:Our analysis indicates that processed RP pseudogenes abound in mammalian genomes, but few of these are conserved between primates and rodents. This highlights the large amount of recent retrotranspositional activity in mammals and a relatively larger amount of it in the rodent lineage.

Genetic modifications could unlock energy from woody plants
- A Pennsylvania State University research team is genetically modifying plants for use in biofuels, adding a protein that makes cellular walls vulnerable to chemicals used in common laundry detergents. Woody plants are made up in part of lignin, a tough

Comment: Why kids are natural-born scientists
TV presenter asks why so many children get turned off science at school – and what we can do to rekindle their excitement

Chastising the Cherry-Picking McCain-Palin Ticket
You’re not supposed to kick a guy when he’s down.

Of course, in reality, when he’s down is the perfect time to kick him. He’s closer to your feet, for one thing. But the particular kicking I have in mind should be thought of as tough love. These kicks at the freshly defeated McCain-Palin ticket, as I write in early November, are an attempt to knock some sense back into the group of my fellow Americans who seem determined to ignore or even denigrate valuable scientific research because it’s something outside the realm of Joe the Plumber’s daily activities.

Invention: Exoskeleton power steering
Borrowing a trick used to steer cars without effort could make robotic exoskeletons more reliable and easier to use, a patent application claims

Carbon-Offset Cowboys Let Their Grass Grow
In the rolling foothills of the madison range in southwestern Montana, a cabin-style house sits beside a washboard dirt road. A few horses loiter in a corral outside, and spotted ranch dogs bark and jump at the fence. James Stuart, manager of Sun Ranch, lives here with his wife and three kids. Christian, the oldest at four years, just got his first pony.

Stuart, who comes from a long line of rugged Scots who settled this region, has auburn hair and eyes lined from squinting--or smiling--in bright sunlight. He loves this land. You can hear it in his voice as he rattles off the creeks and canyons of the 26,000 acres he’s surveying from the cab of his silver Dodge pickup. We’re parked on an overlook in the middle of the ranch as Stuart’s gloved hand traces the outlines of the landscape around us. “We have Wolf Creek to the north, we have Moose Creek coming down out of this big canyon....” His voice trails off as our line of vision ends at the hilly horizon.

Space experiment has a sting in the tail for newts
Newts aren't normally fazed by having their tails chopped off – they just grow a new one – but microgravity plays havoc with the process

New start to a new year
Resolve to reuse and recycle as much as you can.

Desktop atom smashers could replace LHC
The next generation of particle smashers might be considerably smaller than the Large Hadron Collider – and made almost literally out of thin air

Review: Why Evolution is True by Jerry Coyne
Creationism is like a roly-poly clown that pops back up when you punch it, and Jerry Coyne's new book aims to keep it down

Review: Why evolution is true
Creationism is like a roly-poly clown that pops back up when you punch it, and Jerry Coyne's new book aims to keep it down

Discussion on genetically modified crops
It will reduce 80 per cent pesticide use Need to create awareness on this new technology stressed BHUBANESWAR: Orissa University for Agriculture Technology (OUAT) has started field trials of Bt Brinjal, a genetically modified food, to test its impact on

Why mountains are bad for the ozone layer
Airflows above mountains create rare clouds that act as reaction sites for chemicals that destroy ozone

Implants for babies could help deaf learn to speak
Brain activity that is "scrambled" in deaf cats develops normally if they are fitted with a cochlear implant shortly after birth, say researchers

The tempest over genetically modified foods
We may not realize it, but our country has been awash in genetically modified foods and products for more than a decade. In 2008 alone, Food Fray author Lisa Weasel enlightens us, ''80 percent of all corn, 86 percent of all cotton, and 92 percent of all

Earthquake rattles Indonesia's West Papua province, prompts brief tsunami warning
The waters off of Indonesia were rocked by a 7.6-magnitude earthquake at 4:43 a.m. local time Sunday, the US Geological Survey reports. The quake's epicenter was about 150 km (95 miles) off the coast of Manokwari, in the West Papua province, and 170 km (105 miles) from the city of Sorong. It was followed by at least two aftershocks, one measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale.

What are Temperate Forests?
Photo: USFWS Temperate forests are areas with high levels of precipitation and humidity. These forests also contain a variety of deciduous trees. Deciduous trees lose their leaves in...

Grape Seed Extract and Cancer
Researchers from the University of Kentucky have discovered that grape seed extract causes cancer cells to die. The extract activates a protein which causes leukemia cells to self destruct by...

Comments to Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) regarding Labeling Standards for Genetically Modified Foods
Extract not available.

Aquaculture's growth seen as continuing
Aquaculture production of seafood will probably remain the most rapidly increasing food production system worldwide through 2025, according to an assessment published in the January 2009 issue of BioScience. The assessment, by James S. Diana of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, notes that despite well-publicized concerns about some harmful effects of aquaculture, the technique may, when practiced well, be no more damaging to biodiversity than other food production systems. Moreover, it may be the only way to supply growing demand for seafood as the human population increases.

Dormant cancer cells rely on cellular self-cannibalization to survive
A single tumor-suppressing gene is a key to understanding, and perhaps killing, dormant ovarian cancer cells that persist after initial treatment only to reawaken years later, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the December Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Mystery stone circles may point to water on Mars
Circles of rocky material sorted by size suggest that the local Martian climate was once much warmer than thought

Tamil Nadu govt must ban GM Foods: Greenpeace
At a press conference organised here today by Greenpeace on behalf of a network of organisations and individuals ''Safe Food Alliance'', eminent Fertility experts Dr Kamala Selvaraj and Dr Jayam Kanna, Molecular biologist and former President of Council

Stop genetically modified food in Tamil Nadu: Greenpeace
The report claims GM foods pose a threat to health and agriculture. Releasing the report at a press conference, Kamala Selvaraj, Fertility expert from GG Hospital here, talked about a recent Austrian government study that showed GM corn caused

How do spawning fish navigate back to the very same stream where they were born?
Megan McPhee, research assistant professor at the University of Montana’s Flathead Lake Biological Station, steers us to an answer:

This behavior is best exemplified by salmon, which combine conventional open-water navigation and a keen sense of smell to find their way. Salmon can migrate out to sea to feed for several years before returning to spawn in the same stream, sometimes even the same section of stream, in which they were born. Other homing species probably use similar mechanisms, but few can match such precision.

The Science of Weight Loss
If you've made shedding pounds a New Year's resolution, here's a guide to the research behind dieting and exercise

Does Exercise Really Make You Healthier?
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) late this year released its new Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, calling for adults between the ages of 18 and 64 to exercise moderately (such as brisk walking or water aerobics) for at least two hours and 30 minutes or vigorously (running, swimming, or  cycling 10 mph or faster) for at least an hour and 15 minutes weekly.

Diatom genomes come of age
The results of two published genome sequences from marine diatoms provide basic insights into how these remarkable organisms evolved to become one of the most successful groups of eukaryotic algae in the contemporary ocean.

Did a Comet Hit Earth 12,000 Years Ago?
Roughly 12,900 years ago, massive global cooling kicked in abruptly, along with the end of the line for some 35 different mammal species, including the mammoth, as well as the so-called Clovis culture of prehistoric North Americans. Various theories have been proposed for the die-off, ranging from abrupt climate change to overhunting once humans were let loose on the wilds of North America. But now nanodiamonds found in the sediments from this time period point to an alternative: a massive explosion or explosions by a fragmentary comet, similar to but even larger than the Tunguska event of 1908 in Siberia.

Green Role Model: California Academy of Sciences
Looking like a quirky, rolling landscape out of a dr. seuss book, the green roof is literally the crowning achievement of architect Renzo Piano’s new California Academy of Sciences building in San Francisco. Every element of the structure has been designed with sustainability in mind, in keeping with the academy’s mission--“to explore, explain and protect the natural world.” The academy boasts that its $500-million home, which holds a platinum rating for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), is “the greenest museum in the world.”

Its many facilities include a natural history museum, an aquarium, theaters and a four-story miniature rain forest. Most of the construction consists of recycled materials, even down to the blue jean denim insulating the walls. Floor-to-ceiling windows offer expansive views of neighboring Golden Gate Park and naturally illuminate 90 percent of the occupied spaces. A solar canopy with 60,000 photovoltaic cells generates up to 10 percent of the electricity, which helps the building consume about 35 percent less power than federal guidelines require.

Top 10 space stories of 2008
The most popular space stories of the year include a gallery of spooky cosmic images and an exploration of whether the universe existed before the big bang

Scientific American Reviews: The Secret of the Great Pyramid
The Secret of the Great Pyramid: How One Man’s Obsession Led to the Solution of Ancient Egypt’s Greatest Mystery

Seven new wonders of the world
Amidst much bad news, it's worth remembering that we live on an amazing planet – here are some of the most exciting stories revealed in 2008

Genes give Africans a better sense of taste
People from Cameroon and Kenya have far more variation in a gene that controls sensitivity to bitterness, say researchers – could it be a survival adaptation?

Invention: Software research assistant
Need to appear knowledgeable on something you know nothing about? Software that does the hard work for you is the answer, a new patent application claims

Infecting Mosquitoes Before They Infect Us
[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]

Mosquitoes carry nasty diseases--dengue fever, West Nile, malaria. But the microbes that cause those diseases don’t attach themselves to the mosquitoes and then immediately latch onto their next victim. They need time to grow and replicate in the mosquito before migrating to the bug’s salivary glands. For example, the dengue fever virus takes about two weeks to incubate.

Resources in Film and Online
FILMSEnvironmental Film Festival

Analysis of the platypus genome suggests a transposon origin for mammalian imprinting
Background:Genomic imprinting is an epigenetic phenomenon that results in monoallelic gene expression. Many hypotheses have been advanced to explain why genomic imprinting evolved in mammals, but few have examined how it arose. The host defence hypothesis suggests that imprinting evolved from existing mechanisms within the cell that act to silence foreign DNA elements that insert into the genome. However, the changes to the mammalian genome that accompanied the evolution of imprinting have been hard to define due to the absence of large scale genomic resources between all extant classes. The recent release of the platypus genome has provided the first opportunity to perform comparisons between prototherian (monotreme; which appear to lack imprinting) and therian (marsupial and eutherian; which have imprinting) mammals. Results:We compared the distribution of repeat elements known to attract epigenetic silencing across the entire genome from monotremes and therian mammals particularly focusing on the orthologous imprinted regions. There was a significant accumulation of certain repeat elements within imprinted regions of therian mammals compared to the platypus. Conclusions:Our analyses show that the platypus has significantly fewer repeats of certain classes in the regions of the genome that have become imprinted in therian mammals. The accumulation of repeats, especially LTRs and DNA elements, in therian imprinted genes and gene clusters is coincident with, and may have been a potential driving force in, the development of mammalian genomic imprinting. These data provide strong support for the host defence hypothesis.

2008: The year in astronomy
Astronomers observed the most powerful explosion ever recorded, detected what may be dark matter and found hints of a fractal universe

Study shows that the societal, economic burden of insomnia is high
A study in the Jan. 1 issue of the journal Sleep indicates that the indirect costs of untreated insomnia are significantly greater than the direct costs associated with its treatment. The study estimates that the total annual cost of insomnia in the province of Quebec is 6.5 billion Canadian dollars, representing about one percent of the province's $228.5 billion in gross domestic product for 2002.

The gold standard: Biodesign Institute researchers use nanoparticles to make 3-D DNA nanotubes
Arizona State University researchers Hao Yan and Yan Liu imagine and assemble intricate structures on a scale almost unfathomably small. Their medium is the double-helical DNA molecule, a versatile building material offering near limitless construction potential.

Using virtual worlds and video games to teach the lessons of reality
Researchers are beginning to wonder whether video games, long seen as a top time waster for kids and a roadblock to their educational development, might actually be a solution to what ails today's schools rather than a problem.

Ocean Acidification Hits Great Barrier Reef
The largest coral reef system in the world--and the biggest sign of life on Earth, visible from space--is not growing like it used to. A sampling of 328 massive Porites coral (large structures resembling brains that are formed by tiny polyps) from across the 133,000-square-mile (344,000-square-kilometer) reef reveals that growth of these colonies has slowed by roughly 13 percent since 1990.

Alcohol and the New Year
Happy New Year! However, after a night of celebration and drinking, many people may not feel so happy. They may be wondering why they feel weak, thirsty, have headaches, and...

Springy robot has a gentle touch
Industrial robots are mostly power-hungry workhorses, but a new mechanical arm and hand uses no more energy than a couple of electric toothbrushes

Gallery: Virtual autopsies dissect humans and animals
Stunning 3D scans of subjects from chimps to murder victims from a team who's work has appeared in the CSI television shows

More polar bears going hungry
Three times as many bears are in a fasting state compared with 20 years ago – it's all down to melting ice, say researchers

What killed Dr Granville's mummy?
Augustus Granville made a famous study of an Egyptian mummy in 1821 – but how much did he get right?

Looking for Sleep in All the Wrong Places
Desperately seeking a good night's sleep, insomniacs spend more money on alcohol than medical help and sleep aids combined, according to a study published today in the journal Sleep. But experts say turning to the bottle is the last thing you should do if you can't fall asleep at night.

Completing the Cosmic Course
[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]

Happy New Year! And don’t feel bad about taking today off. After all, you’ve traveled far. And I’m not talking about the trip home from the party last night. According to NASA, just by being on the planet Earth in the last year, you’ve zipped about 584 million miles around the sun to get back where you were. At an average speed of about 67,000 miles per hour. Again, not talking about the drive home last night.

New study says preventive antibiotics may stave off deaths
Giving antibiotics to patients in hospital intensive care units (ICUs) to prevent--rather than fight--bacterial infections may reduce the number of patient deaths, Dutch scientists report today in The New England Journal of Medicine. Despite the findings, some researchers remain skeptical whether the possible risks (most notably spurring new antibiotic-resistant germs) outweigh the benefits of plying patients with antibiotics instead of using other more benign strategies such as hand-washing, isolating contagious patients and scrubbing hospitals with antiseptic cleansers.

Health reporters should have 'higher standards,' commentary says
Health journalists are getting scolded by one of their own. Susan Dentzer, a correspondent for PBS's the NewsHour, argues in a commentary in today's New England Journal of Medicine that medical reporters too often get the facts wrong, fail to provide context about new research, and hype treatments that don’t deserve the coverage.

Tamil Nadu urged to ban genetically modified crops
CHENNAI: Green Peace representative Jai Krishna on Tuesday called upon the Tamil Nadu government to ban genetically modified crops. Taking off from Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss statement earlier this month that he would oppose any move to

California sues Bush administration to protect endangered species
California this week sued the feds to block a new Bush administration rule from taking effect that would relax portions of the Endangered Species Act.

50 Years Ago: A Witness at the Scopes Trial
Editor's Note: This story, originally published in the January 1959 issue of Scientific American is being posted as a supplement to the "50, 100, 150 Years Ago" Column in the January 2009 issue of Scientific American.

"This is Clarence Darrow," said the voice at the other end of the wire, "I suppose you have been reading the papers, so you know Bryan and his outfit are prosecuting that young fellow Scopes. Well, Malone, Colby and I have put ourselves in a mess by offering to defend. We don't know much about evolution. We don't know whom to call as witnesses. But we do know we are fighting your battle for academic freedom. We need the help of you fellows at the University, so I am asking three of you to come to my office to help lay plans."

The day Microsoft's Zunes stood still
It wasn't exactly the day the Earth stood still, but for some Microsoft Zune users, it might as well have been when their mp3 players (specifically, the 30 gigabyte models) all crashed at the same time earlier today, rendering them useless. You see, once the Zune freezes, it can't be reset.

Greenpeace pleads for ban on GM food
Chennai (PTI): Environmental group Greenpeace on Tuesday urged the Tamil Nadu Government to ban Genetically Modified (GM) food items in the state, saying they would adversely affect the health of the people and the state of agriculture. Talking to

A seat at the table
The appointment of two life scientists, including a genome biologist, to the President-elect Obama's President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology is encouraging.

2008: The year in the solar system
Astronomers glimpsed unseen swathes of Mercury, found a space rock heading for Earth and landed a probe squarely on a patch of Martian ice

Gallery: Most stunning images of 2008
See a selection of the most stunning science images from our galleries this year including the propagation and reflection of a blast wave, a planetary nebula and a baby kangaroo suckling in a pouch...

The Manhattan Project and the Met
The text transcript is currently not available. Transcripts are posted about a week after the podcast airs.

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Your Idle Computer Could Help Calculate Global Warming
Better climate models are key to understanding how best to protect the environment and food production, but they require massive computing resources.

NASA releases details on deaths of Columbia crew
The astronauts on the shuttle Columbia tried to control the spacecraft as it broke up over Texas on its way back from a 16-day mission on February 1, 2003, but they had no chance of surviving, NASA says in a sobering report.

The Environmental Problem of Phone Books--Is There a Solution?
Dear EarthTalk: I came home today to yet another set of phone books at my front door. I feel they are a great waste of paper, especially in this electronic age. How can I stop getting these books? Better yet: How can we get the phone companies to stop making them? -- Bill Jones, via e-mail

Microsoft poses (and U.S. patent office rejects) a plan for pay-as-you-go PCs
Could your computer be turned into a utility that you pay for based on how powerful it is and how often you use it? The world's largest software company thinks so.

GM foods threaten local farmers and environment
Agricultural biotechnology products such as genetically modified (GM) food threaten food security and the livelihoods of small farmers in the developing world and poses serious health and environmental dangers. The Pacific Network on Globalisation

100 Years Ago: Inaccurately Explaining Earthquakes
JANUARY 1959A VOICE FROM THE SCOPES TRIAL-- “‘This is Clarence Darrow,’ said the voice at the other end of the wire, ‘I suppose you have been reading the papers, so you know Bryan and his outfit are prosecuting that young fellow Scopes. Well, Malone, Colby and I have put ourselves in a mess by offering to defend. We don’t know much about evolution. We don’t know whom to call as witnesses. But we do know we are fighting your battle for academic freedom. We need the help of you fellows at the University, so I am asking three of you to come to my office to help lay plans.’

The year's weirdest animals
From a sea-slug that runs on solar power to a one-tonne rodent – here are the 10 oddest species from 2008

AVMA Comments on Regulation of GM Animals
The AVMA recognizes the benefits of genetically engineered animals as well as the welfare concerns, according to comments that the Association submitted to the Food and Drug Administration and Department of Agriculture. In late 2008, the FDA solicited

Invention: Artistic style capture
A new way to scan the 3D traces of brushstrokes in oils could make it possible to "replay" the work of old masters

Gold nanoparticles for controlled drug delivery
Using tiny gold particles and infrared light, MIT researchers have developed a drug-delivery system that allows multiple drugs to be released in a controlled fashion.

Few DNA repair genes maintain association with cancer in field synopsis
Variants of numerous DNA repair genes initially appeared to be statistically significantly associated with cancer risk in epidemiological studies. When the data from individual studies are pooled, however, few DNA repair gene variants appear truly associated with increased cancer risk, according to a field synopsis published in the December 30 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

A happy new year for penguins
The Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society announced today that its efforts to protect a wildlife-rich coastal region in South America have paid off in the form of a new coastal marine park recently signed into law by the Government of Argentina. =

Science's 2008 Achievement List
[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]

It’s the time of year to take a look back--and that’s just what the journal Science did as they listed their most important breakthroughs of 2008. At the very top of their list: reprogramming cells. Scientists were able to successfully transform cells from ill patients into stem cells. This is important in understanding exactly how cells develop, and it could be a crucial step in finding a way to treat disease by using a patient’s own cells.

No dearth of speakers in the GM food debate
To complicate the issue further, Union health minister A. Ramadoss last week made a public statement in Kancheepuram on World Consumers' Day that GM food crops are a potential health hazard. Probably, he drew his inference earlier this month. Already

Greenpeace pleads for ban on GM food
Chennai (PTI): Environmental group Greenpeace on Tuesday urged the Tamil Nadu Government to ban Genetically Modified (GM) food items in the state, saying they would adversely affect the health of the people and the state of agriculture. Talking to

NASA says Columbia crew had no chance to survive
The shift from what appeared to be a normal descent on 1 Feb 2003 into disaster happened so fast that the crew didn't have time to close their visors