lunes 5 de febrero de 2007

China to research global warming (AP)

   

A chimney spouts a column of smoke in residential and commercial district of Beijing, China Wednesday Jan. 30, 2007. The weather in China's capital has been unseasonably warm with temperatures hitting a 30-year high, state media said Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2007 amid concern over the country's soaring greenhouse gas emissions. China, already the world's largest producer and consumer of coal, is expected to surpass the United States as the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter in the next decade. Beijing is trying to promote conservation, but the government is reluctant to adopt binding emissions limits, arguing that its people are too poor and its companies lack technology to set stringent goals. (AP Photo/Elizabeth Dalziel)AP - China will spend more to research global warming but lacks the money and technology to significantly reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are worsening the problem, a government official said Tuesday.



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Small Jerusalem dig unites Palestinians (AP)

   

Palestinian workers look at sand sacks inside an archaeological dig outside the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's old city,  Monday, Feb. 5, 2007.  In the space of one day, a small archaeological dig in Jerusalem's Old City became a rallying call aimed at uniting Palestinians against Israel.  The dig — a few waterlogged sandbags and black buckets of earth behind aluminum walls — is meant to prepare the way for a new pedestrian walkway up to one of the world's most explosive holy sites, the compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)AP - In the space of one day, a small archaeological dig in Jerusalem's Old City became a rallying call aimed at uniting Palestinians against Israel.



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Dinosaur eggs reportedly found in India (AP)

   

Fossilized eggs of dinosaurs are shown to media persons at Mandav, around 280 kilometers (175 miles) west of Bhopal, India, Monday, Feb. 5, 2007. Explorers have stumbled upon more than 100 fossilized eggs of dinosaurs belonging to the Cretaceous Era (approximately 144 to 65 million years ago), in Kukshi-Bagh area of Dhar district, of Madhya Pradesh according to a newspaper report. (AP Photo)AP - Three Indian explorers have recovered more than 100 fossilized eggs of dinosaurs in a remote area in a central Indian state, a news report said Monday.



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New mollusk species found in Philippines (AP)

   

A very rare seashell of the Slit shell family (scientific name: Bayerotrochus philpoppei) which was discovered  by Belgian Guido Poppe in early 2006 off  Balut Island in southern Philippines is displayed at the National Museum in Manila, Philippines Monday Feb.5, 2007 at the turn-over ceremony of newly-discovered marine species in the waters off Panglao Island in Bohol province in central Philippines. More than 1,200 species of decapod crustaceans and some 6,000 species of mollusks were discovered by the Panglao 2005-2006 Expedition team headed by Dr. Philippe Bouchet of the French National Museum of Natural History. Only 10 specimens are known around the world as claimed by Belgian Guido Poppe who discovered the rare find and has a price tag of US $10,000 dollars. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)AP - A French-led marine expedition team believes it has discovered thousands of new species of mollusks and crustaceans around a Philippine island, officials and scientists said Monday.



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Female spacewalk record broken

   US astronaut Sunita Williams has now spent more time walking in space than any other woman.
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Satellite set to go super-cold

   Europe's Planck satellite will study relic radiation from the Big Bang to answer deep questions about the origin of the Universe.
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Death key to sex in butterflies

   Female promiscuity in butterflies has been found to rise as bacteria kill off male partners.
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No peace dividend for Nepal's wildlife

   Nepal's political transition marks sharp increases in poaching and trafficking of endangered species.
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'Super-scope' opens for business

   The biggest science facility to be built in the UK for 30 years - the Diamond synchrotron - welcomes its first users.
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Use Knovel - Win Something

   Knovel is running another University Challenge starting today. Use Knovel to answer the five questions about these chemical compounds. Students who answer all five correctly will be entered into a drawing for a $1500 scholarship or 1 of 8 iPods!!...
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Getting clipped (weather.com)

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Germany rapped over carbon

   European commissioners criticise Germany for resisting a cap on industrial CO2 emissions in 2008-12.
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UN lifts beluga caviar sales ban

   The United Nations lifts a ban on the sale of beluga caviar, the most expensive variety.
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Women's spacewalk record broken

   US astronaut Sunita Williams has now spent more time walking in space than any other woman.
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Winter weather 'confuses salmon'

   BBC NI environment correspondent Martin Cassidy on warm weather affecting salmon.
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UN body unlocks small Beluga caviar trade in 2007 (AFP)

   

A fisherman guts a Beluga sturgeon that was caught near the Black Sea village of Sfantu Gheorghe in 2004. Limited amounts of beluga caviar will be allowed back on cocktail tables this year after the UN's watchdog on endangered species lifted a ban on international trade.(AFP/Adrian Silisteanu)AFP - Limited amounts of the world's most prized caviar will be allowed back on cocktail tables this year after the UN's watchdog on endangered species on Monday lifted a ban on international trade.



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Hungary hopeful it can keep its GMO ban (Reuters)

   Reuters - Hungary's government sees a good chance that an upcoming meeting of European Union environment ministers will allow it to maintain its ban on genetically modified crops, the Environment Ministry said on Monday.
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Microprinting technique for patterning single molecules

   A new process for creating patterns of individual molecules on a surface, known as "microcontact insertion printing," combines control of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) and a soft-lithography technique known as microcontact printing. The process, which can build surfaces that have molecules with specific functions inserted at known intervals, has potential applications ranging from analysis of biochemical mixtures to molecular-scale electronic components.
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9 U.S. towns ready for Atlantic tsunami (AP)

   

Tom Burris, emergency management director for Liberty County, walks past a tsunami warning sign Tuesday Jan. 30, 2007 that is leaning against a wall in his Hinesville, Ga. office. The warning sign was designed and distributed by the National Weather Service. Liberty County became the ninth community on the eastern seaboard to be certified by the Weather Service as ready to respond to tsunamis. (AP Photo/Stephen Morton)AP - Standing outside his home 100 yards from the Atlantic Ocean, John T. Woods III has a hard time imagining it — a towering tidal wave one day crashing over the dock where a lone fisherman recently cast his line.



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India's foreign minister calls for weapon-free space (AFP)

   

A PSLV-C7 rocket carrying sensitive satellite equipment is launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation in Andhra Pradesh, in 2006. New Delhi's space programme is aimed at peaceful research, India's foreign minister has insisted, after rival China conducted an satellite-killing missile test last month.(AFP/File)AFP - New Delhi's space programme is aimed at peaceful research, India's foreign minister has insisted, after rival China conducted an satellite-killing missile test last month.



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Biting cold, burying snow (weather.com)

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25 dead in Indonesia flood; 340,000 flee (AP)

   

This is an aerial view of a flooded neighborhood Sunday Feb. 4, 2007 in Jakarta, Indonesia. At least 20 people have been killed and 200,000 forced from their homes by floods in Indonesia's capital, an official said Sunday, as rivers overflowing from four days of rain inundated the city.(AP Photo)AP - Horse-drawn carts rescued residents from flood-stricken districts in the Indonesian capital on Monday after flooding burst riverbanks, killing at least 25 people and forcing some 340,000 to flee from their homes in recent days.



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Experts hunt for bird flu source

   Experts try to determine the source of an outbreak of bird flu as a mass cull of turkeys nears its end.
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Alzheimer's gene raises newborns' cerebral palsy risk

   Apolipoprotein E (APOE), a gene associated with heightened risk for Alzheimer's disease in adults, can also increase the likelihood that brain-injured newborns will develop cerebral palsy, researchers at Children's Memorial Research Center have discovered.
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