Thursday, October 3, 2013

Russia launches rocket after fiery crash in July

MOSCOW | Mon Sep 30, 2013 3:51am EDT

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia successfully launched an unmanned Proton-M booster rocket on Monday, the first since the same type of rocket crashed in flames shortly after lift-off in July, the space agency said.

Carrying a communications satellite for Luxembourg-based SES, the rocket blasted off from the Russian-leased Baikonur facility in Kazakhstan at 3:38 a.m. (2138 GMT on Sunday), Roskosmos said.

The satellite reached orbit about nine hours later, state-run spacecraft maker Khrunichev, which built the Proton-M, said on its website.

The heavy-lift Proton-M is a workhorse of Russia's space program and the fiery crash on July 2 was one of several setbacks in recent years.

Officials have said velocity sensors that had been installed wrongly caused the crash, which generated tension between Russia and Kazakhstan because it spilled toxic rocket fuel.

The launch on Monday was conducted by International Launch Services, a U.S.-based subsidiary of Khrunichev.

(Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Angus MacSwan)


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Commercial cargo ship reaches International Space Station

By Irene Klotz

Sun Sep 29, 2013 7:18pm EDT

n">(Reuters) - An unmanned U.S. commercial cargo ship flew to the International Space Station on Sunday, completing the primary goal of its test flight before supply runs begin in December.

After a series of successful steering maneuvers, the Orbital Sciences Cygnus freighter parked about 39 feet from the station at 6:50 a.m. EDT/1050 GMT as the ships sailed 260 miles above the Southern Ocean south of Africa.

Ten minutes later, Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA's Karen Nyberg used the station's robotic arm to pluck the capsule from orbit and guide it to a berthing slip on the station's Harmony connecting node.

"That's a long time coming, looks great," radioed astronaut Catherine Coleman from NASA's Mission Control in Houston.

Cygnus' arrival had been delayed a week - first by a software glitch and then by the higher priority docking of a Russian Soyuz capsule ferrying three new crewmembers to the $100 billion outpost, a project of 15 nations.

Orbital Sciences' new unmanned Antares rocket blasted off on September 18 from a new launch pad on the Virginia coast to put Cygnus into orbit.

"We learned a lot on this one," Orbital Sciences executive vice president Frank Culbertson told reporters after launch.

NASA contributed $288 million toward Antares' and Cygnus' development and awarded Orbital Sciences a $1.9 billion contract for eight station resupply missions, the first of which is targeted for December.

The U.S. space agency also provided $396 million to privately owned Space Exploration Technologies to help develop the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo ship. The company, known as SpaceX, holds a $1.5 billion NASA contract for 12 cargo runs to the station, two of which already have been completed.

Unlike SpaceX's Dragon capsule, Cygnus is not designed to return to Earth. After astronauts unload more than 1,500 pounds (680 kg) of food, clothing and supplies that were packed aboard Cygnus, it will be filled with trash, detached from the station and flown into the atmosphere for incineration.

Thales Alenia Space, a consortium led by Europe's largest defense electronics company, France's Thales, is a prime contractor on the capsule.

For now, NASA is the only customer for Cygnus, but Orbital Sciences expects additional business as the United States and other countries launch exploration initiatives beyond the space station's orbit.

(Reporting by Irene Klotz in Lompoc, California; Editing by Bill Trott and Stacey Joyce)


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SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasts off from California

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying a small science satellite for Canada is seen as it is launched from a newly refurbished launch pad in Vandenberg Air Force Station September 29, 2013. REUTERS/Gene Blevins


A Falcon 9 rocket carrying a small science satellite for Canada is seen as it is launched from a newly refurbished launch pad in Vandenberg Air Force Station September 29, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Gene Blevins

By Irene Klotz


VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California | Sun Sep 29, 2013 9:22pm EDT


VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California (Reuters) - An unmanned Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from California on Sunday to test upgrades before commercial satellite launch services begin later this year.


The 22-story rocket, built and flown by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, soared off a newly refurbished, leased launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Station at noon (1600 GMT).


The Falcon 9 blazed through clear blue skies out over the Pacific Ocean, its water vapor trail visible even as the rocket left the atmosphere.


"It went better than expected. It was incredibly smooth," SpaceX founder and Chief Executive Elon Musk told Reuters after the launch.


Nestled inside the rocket's new 17-foot (5-meter) diameter nose cone was a small Canadian science satellite called Cassiope that initially was to fly on SpaceX's now-discontinued Falcon 1 launcher in 2008.


"It's certainly a huge relief to have successfully delivered Cassiope to orbit. It's been weighing on me quite heavily," Musk said.


Cassiope, which is designed to monitor the space environment around Earth and serve as a communications satellite, and five secondary payloads were delivered into their intended orbits, Musk told reporters on a conference call.


As an experiment, both of the rocket's two stages were restarted during flight.


Musk is particularly interested in developing the technology to fly the Falcon's first stage back to the launch site or have it gently splash down in the water so its motors can be recovered, refurbished and reflown. Currently, after delivering their payloads into orbit, the boosters tumble back toward Earth and essentially explode mid-air before crashing into the sea.


"The most revolutionary thing about the new Falcon 9 is the potential ability to recover the boost phase, which is almost three-quarters of the cost of the rocket," Musk said.


Neither engine restart test went perfectly, but engineers were able to get enough data to plan on a demonstration flight next year.


"The most important thing is we now believe we have all the pieces of the puzzle," Musk said.


The upgraded Falcon 9 v1.1 has engines that are 60 percent more powerful than previous versions, longer fuel tanks, new avionics and software and other features intended to boost lift capacity and simplify operations for commercial service.


Privately-owned SpaceX has contracts for more than 50 launches of its new Falcon 9 and planned Falcon Heavy rockets.


Ten of those missions are to fly cargo to the International Space Station for NASA. The other customers are non-U.S. government agencies and commercial satellite operators.


SpaceX also has two contracts for small U.S. Air Force satellites but is looking to break the monopoly that United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, has on flying big military satellites as well.


SpaceX already has flown three Dragon capsules to the station and made two other successful test flights with its older version Falcons.


Falcon 9's next mission is to put a communications satellite into orbit for SES World Skies. The launch is targeted for next month from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.


"We accomplished a lot today," Musk said. "We have a little bit of work to do obviously, but all-in-all I think it's been a great day."


(Editing by Paul Simao)


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Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Quantum Computers Check Each Other’s Work

SAGE KE Science Careers All HighWire Journals Advanced News Science Journals Careers Multimedia Topics Subscribe Main menu News HomeHot Topics Current Shutdown Sequestration MERS Categories Africa Archaeology Asia Asia/Pacific Biology Brain & Behavior Chemistry Climate Earth Economics Education Environment Europe Evolution Funding Health Latin America Math Paleontology People & Events Physics Plants & Animals Policy Scientific Community Social Sciences Space Technology From the Magazine Subscribe to Science 26 September 2013 3:05 pm , Vol. 341 , #6153 Sequester Takes Uneven Bite From Agency Budgets For nearly a year, research leaders have been warning that the 5% budget cut known as the sequester would have dire... U.S. Carbon Plan Relies on Uncertain Capture Technology A new proposal from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would place tighter limits on carbon dioxide emissions... Government's Start Leaves Scientists Uneasy Scientific leaders in Australia are quietly pleading their case to their new government, hoping to dissuade it from... DNA Sleuths Track C. difficile Infection Routes Patients hit with C. difficile often have violent diarrhea, which spreads the bug easily in unsanitary conditions... Zombie Endocrine Disruptors May Threaten Aquatic Life Many U.S. ranchers implant cattle with the synthetic androgen trenbolone acetate to beef them up, but concerns have... Special News Package: Taming a Mercurial Element Mercury has beguiled people for centuries, but the heavy metal also poses serious health and environmental dangers... With Pact's Completion, the Real Work Begins More than 140 nations will meet next month in Japan to formally adopt the Minamata Convention on Mercury. It calls for... In Minamata, Mercury Still Divides The new global agreement to reduce mercury emissions is named after Minamata, a small seaside town in southern Japan...

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Currently, all quantum computers involve only a few qubits "and thus can be easily verified by a classical computer, or on a piece of large numbers of qubits or two entangled quantum computers. But these still lie particular quantum computer and the computation it carries out. Still, the more traps users build into the tasks, the better they can ensure the quantum computer they test is computing accurately. "The test is designed in such a way that the quantum computer cannot distinguish the trap from its normal tasks," Walther says.


The researchers used a 4-qubit quantum computer as the verifier, but any size will do, and the more qubits the better, Walther notes. The technique is scalable, so it could be used even on computers with hundreds of qubits, he says, and it can be applied to any of the many existing quantum computing platforms.


"Like almost all current quantum computing experiments, this currently has the status of a fun demonstration proof of concept, rather than anything that's directly useful yet," says theoretical computer scientist Scott Aaronson at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. But that doesn’t detract from the importance of these demonstrations, he adds. "I'm very happy that they're done, as they're necessary first steps if we're ever going to have useful quantum computers."

Posted In:  Physics Related Stories Government's Start Leaves Scientists Uneasy

Australia's new government eliminated the science minister post and has begun dismantling climate change programs—and more tremors could follow.

Zombie Endocrine Disruptors May Threaten Aquatic Life

Suggesting a new ecological threat, hormonal metabolites thought to degrade in sunlight can revert at night, zombielike, back into the endocrine-disrupting substances.

Special News Package: Taming a Mercurial Element

Can a landmark global agreement to curb mercury pollution make a difference?

DNA Sleuths Track C. difficile Infection Routes

C. difficile, a nasty hospital-acquired infection, is on the rise. Genetic sleuths are looking for where it is coming from and what can be done.

Sequester Takes Uneven Bite From Agency Budgets

As the 2013 fiscal year comes to a close in the United States, the impact on science of the 5% federal budget cut known as the sequester is becoming clearer—sort of.

Mag').parent().attr('class', 'less-link'); } else { jQuery(this).text('More From Science Mag').parent().attr('class', 'more-link'); }}); ScienceInsiderBreaking news and analysis from the world of science policy Controversial Proposal for Wolf Conservation Gets a Reboot U.S. Government Shutdown Looms After Senate Vote Problems Mount for Novartis's Hypertension Drug in Japan Researcher Posts Protected Mars Papers to Protest Journal Paywalls House Science Committee Drafts Controversial Bill on U.S. Research Funding NIH Swears Off Science Education

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ScienceShot: Corals, in Panoramic View

ScienceShot: Corals, in Panoramic View | Science/AAAS | News Skip to main content Science/AAAS AAAS.ORG Feedback Help Librarians Alerts Access Rights My Account Sign In All Science Journals Science Magazine Daily News Science Signaling Science Translational Medicine SAGE KE Science Careers All HighWire Journals Advanced News Science Journals Careers Multimedia Topics Subscribe Main menu News HomeHot Topics Current Shutdown Sequestration MERS Categories Africa Archaeology Asia Asia/Pacific Biology Brain & Behavior Chemistry Climate Earth Economics Education Environment Europe Evolution Funding Health Latin America Math Paleontology People & Events Physics Plants & Animals Policy Scientific Community Social Sciences Space Technology From the Magazine Subscribe to Science 26 September 2013 3:05 pm , Vol. 341 , #6153 Sequester Takes Uneven Bite From Agency Budgets For nearly a year, research leaders have been warning that the 5% budget cut known as the sequester would have dire... U.S. Carbon Plan Relies on Uncertain Capture Technology A new proposal from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would place tighter limits on carbon dioxide emissions... Government's Start Leaves Scientists Uneasy Scientific leaders in Australia are quietly pleading their case to their new government, hoping to dissuade it from... DNA Sleuths Track C. difficile Infection Routes Patients hit with C. difficile often have violent diarrhea, which spreads the bug easily in unsanitary conditions... Zombie Endocrine Disruptors May Threaten Aquatic Life Many U.S. ranchers implant cattle with the synthetic androgen trenbolone acetate to beef them up, but concerns have... Special News Package: Taming a Mercurial Element Mercury has beguiled people for centuries, but the heavy metal also poses serious health and environmental dangers... With Pact's Completion, the Real Work Begins More than 140 nations will meet next month in Japan to formally adopt the Minamata Convention on Mercury. It calls for... In Minamata, Mercury Still Divides The new global agreement to reduce mercury emissions is named after Minamata, a small seaside town in southern Japan... More From this IssueScienceNowScienceInsiderScienceLiveAbout Us You are hereNews » ScienceShots » Earth » ScienceShot: Corals, in Panoramic View   Carolyn Gramling Carolyn is a staff writer for Science and is the editor of the News of the Week section. Contact Links Email:  EMAIL ME Twitter Handle:    ScienceShots ScienceShot: Corals, in Panoramic View 30 September 2013 4:00 pm Comments Catlin Global Reef RecordAn underwater world is now at your fingertips. Last week, the Catlin Seaview Survey launched the Global Reef Record, a database of high-resolution images of coral reefs that will ultimately include images and data (such as water temperatures and turbidity) from reefs around the world. Funded by international insurer Catlin Group Ltd., the survey uses a specially designed high-resolution camera (shown) that simultaneously takes images in three directions—right, left, and down. So far, the survey—which began in September 2012 and will continue for 2 more years—has recorded images of more than 32 reefs totaling 150 kilometers along Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Next up in 2014: the Pacific Ocean’s coral triangle. The goal is “to reveal the oceans to the world,” says Richard Vevers, an advertising executive-turned-underwater-photographer who helped create the survey, which has partnered with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, California. The team began a new effort last week in the deep and shallow reefs around Bermuda, hunting for signs of coral bleaching, a hallmark of coral mortality due to prolonged seawater heating. When it comes to reef data, the new record will be a one-stop shop for images and data, says Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, director of the Brisbane, Australia-based Global Change Institute and chief scientist for the survey. ““It’s what I’m calling the world’s largest stock-taking of corals in history.”See more ScienceShots.Posted In:  Earth Related Stories With Pact's Completion, the Real Work Begins In Minamata, Mercury Still Divides Gold's Dark Side U.S. Carbon Plan Relies on Uncertain Capture Technology Special News Package: Taming a Mercurial Element What's New 30 Sep 2013 Plants & Animals Controversial Proposal for Wolf Conservation Gets a Reboot Fish and Wildlife Service begins public hearings about changes to status of the endangered species and launches new scientific peer review 30 Sep 2013 People & Events U.S. Government Shutdown Looms After Senate Vote Government researchers and granting programs could face midnight halt 30 Sep 2013 Asia/Pacific Problems Mount for Novartis's Hypertension Drug in Japan Government investigation also finds data manipulation and raises question of false advertisingFrom The Magazine Sequester Takes Uneven Bite From Agency Budgets U.S. Carbon Plan Relies on Uncertain Capture Technology Government's Start Leaves Scientists Uneasy DNA Sleuths Track C. difficile Infection Routes Zombie Endocrine Disruptors May Threaten Aquatic Life Special News Package: Taming a Mercurial Element With Pact's Completion, the Real Work Begins In Minamata, Mercury Still Divides Gold's Dark Side   Popular Most ReadMost Commented Past:1 week From The Magazine 2013-09-26 15:05, Vol. 341, No. 6153 In Minamata, Mercury Still Divides Nearly 60 years after a chemical plant caused one of the world's worst episodes of mercury poisoning, the Japanese town that came to symbolize the metal's threat is still struggling with the aftermath. Government's Start Leaves Scientists Uneasy Australia's new government eliminated the science minister post and has begun dismantling climate change programs—and more tremors could follow. U.S. Carbon Plan Relies on Uncertain Capture Technology The Obama administration last week unveiled a landmark proposal that would require new coal-fired power plants to capture at least some of the carbon pollution they emit, but the needed technology remains uncertain. Sequester Takes Uneven Bite From Agency Budgets As the 2013 fiscal year comes to a close in the United States, the impact on science of the 5% federal budget cut known as the sequester is becoming clearer—sort of. Special News Package: Taming a Mercurial Element Can a landmark global agreement to curb mercury pollution make a difference? With Pact's Completion, the Real Work Begins The Minamata Convention on Mercury seeks to curb or end most uses of mercury. It also calls for plenty of research. Zombie Endocrine Disruptors May Threaten Aquatic Life Suggesting a new ecological threat, hormonal metabolites thought to degrade in sunlight can revert at night, zombielike, back into the endocrine-disrupting substances. DNA Sleuths Track C. difficile Infection Routes C. difficile, a nasty hospital-acquired infection, is on the rise. Genetic sleuths are looking for where it is coming from and what can be done. Gold's Dark Side Small-scale artisanal gold mining has become the world's leading source of mercury pollution, poisoning air, rivers, and people.More From Science MagjQuery('.view-id-articles.view-display-id-block_more_from_science').find(' li.views-row:gt(2)').hide();jQuery('#block-views-articles-block-2 .more-link a').click(function() { jQuery('.view-id-articles.view-display-id-block_more_from_science').find('li:gt(2)').slideToggle(); if(jQuery(this).text() == 'More From Science Mag') { jQuery(this).text('Less From Science Mag').parent().attr('class', 'less-link'); } else { jQuery(this).text('More From Science Mag').parent().attr('class', 'more-link'); }}); ScienceInsiderBreaking news and analysis from the world of science policy Controversial Proposal for Wolf Conservation Gets a Reboot U.S. Government Shutdown Looms After Senate Vote Problems Mount for Novartis's Hypertension Drug in Japan Researcher Posts Protected Mars Papers to Protest Journal Paywalls House Science Committee Drafts Controversial Bill on U.S. Research Funding NIH Swears Off Science Education See MoreVideo Video: Sharks Slap Their Dinner Silly Sharks Slap Their Dinner Silly    News Science Journals Careers Multimedia Collections Help Site Map RSS Subscribe Feedback Privacy / Legal About Us Advertise With Us Contact Us © 2012 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All Rights Reserved.AAAS is a partner of HINARI, AGORA, OARE, PatientInform, CrossRef, and COUNTER.You have reached the bottom of the page. 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Problems Mount for Novartis's Hypertension Drug in Japan

Problems Mount for Novartis's Hypertension Drug in Japan | Science/AAAS | News Skip to main content Science/AAAS AAAS.ORG Feedback Help Librarians Alerts Access Rights My Account Sign In All Science Journals Science Magazine Daily News Science Signaling Science Translational Medicine SAGE KE Science Careers All HighWire Journals Advanced News Science Journals Careers Multimedia Topics Subscribe Main menu News HomeHot Topics Current Shutdown Sequestration MERS Categories Africa Archaeology Asia Asia/Pacific Biology Brain & Behavior Chemistry Climate Earth Economics Education Environment Europe Evolution Funding Health Latin America Math Paleontology People & Events Physics Plants & Animals Policy Scientific Community Social Sciences Space Technology From the Magazine Subscribe to Science 26 September 2013 3:05 pm , Vol. 341 , #6153 Sequester Takes Uneven Bite From Agency Budgets For nearly a year, research leaders have been warning that the 5% budget cut known as the sequester would have dire... U.S. Carbon Plan Relies on Uncertain Capture Technology A new proposal from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would place tighter limits on carbon dioxide emissions... Government's Start Leaves Scientists Uneasy Scientific leaders in Australia are quietly pleading their case to their new government, hoping to dissuade it from... DNA Sleuths Track C. difficile Infection Routes Patients hit with C. difficile often have violent diarrhea, which spreads the bug easily in unsanitary conditions... Zombie Endocrine Disruptors May Threaten Aquatic Life Many U.S. ranchers implant cattle with the synthetic androgen trenbolone acetate to beef them up, but concerns have... Special News Package: Taming a Mercurial Element Mercury has beguiled people for centuries, but the heavy metal also poses serious health and environmental dangers... With Pact's Completion, the Real Work Begins More than 140 nations will meet next month in Japan to formally adopt the Minamata Convention on Mercury. It calls for... In Minamata, Mercury Still Divides The new global agreement to reduce mercury emissions is named after Minamata, a small seaside town in southern Japan...

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Under scrutiny. A Japanese investigative panel is probing Novartis’s potential involvement manipulating clinical trial data on one of its drugs.


An investigative committee under Japan's ministry of health has confirmed that data in scientific papers resulting from clinical trials of Novartis's blockbuster hypertension drug Diovan were manipulated, several media outlets have reported today. In its interim report, the committee also called for further investigation to determine if Novartis's use of the data to promote the drug constitutes false advertising that is prohibited by Japan’s pharmaceutical laws, according to NHK, the quasi-national broadcaster.


The ministry of health launched its investigation in August after Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, in Kyoto, and Jikei University School of Medicine, in Tokyo, reported finding evidence of data fabrication in papers reporting the results of clinical trials of Diovan, known generically as valsartan, conducted after it received marketing approval in Japan in 2000 for controlling hypertension. Those clinical trials sought to study whether the drug also helped prevent angina and stroke. Both of the investigations found that a former Novartis employee helped the two universities’ research teams with data analysis, though that person's link to the company was not disclosed in the papers. The investigations led to the retraction of several papers related to the trials. The lead researcher at the Kyoto school resigned; the Jikei team leader was disciplined. Three other universities that hosted Diovan trials have ongoing investigations.


As in the previous probes, the health ministry panel could not conclude who bears ultimate responsibility for the data fabrication. Officials of Novartis, based in Basel, Switzerland, and Novartis Pharma KK, the Japanese subsidiary, have apologized and pledged their cooperation in the continuing investigation.

Posted In:  Asia/Pacific Health Related Stories DNA Sleuths Track C. difficile Infection Routes In Minamata, Mercury Still Divides ScienceShot: Controlling a Leg That's Gone Flu
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U.S. Government Shutdown Looms After Senate Vote

U.S. Government Shutdown Looms After Senate Vote | Science/AAAS | News Skip to main content Science/AAAS AAAS.ORG Feedback Help Librarians Alerts Access Rights My Account Sign In All Science Journals Science Magazine Daily News Science Signaling Science Translational Medicine SAGE KE Science Careers All HighWire Journals Advanced News Science Journals Careers Multimedia Topics Subscribe Main menu News HomeHot Topics Current Shutdown Sequestration MERS Categories Africa Archaeology Asia Asia/Pacific Biology Brain & Behavior Chemistry Climate Earth Economics Education Environment Europe Evolution Funding Health Latin America Math Paleontology People & Events Physics Plants & Animals Policy Scientific Community Social Sciences Space Technology From the Magazine Subscribe to Science 26 September 2013 3:05 pm , Vol. 341 , #6153 Sequester Takes Uneven Bite From Agency Budgets For nearly a year, research leaders have been warning that the 5% budget cut known as the sequester would have dire... U.S. Carbon Plan Relies on Uncertain Capture Technology A new proposal from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would place tighter limits on carbon dioxide emissions... Government's Start Leaves Scientists Uneasy Scientific leaders in Australia are quietly pleading their case to their new government, hoping to dissuade it from... DNA Sleuths Track C. difficile Infection Routes Patients hit with C. difficile often have violent diarrhea, which spreads the bug easily in unsanitary conditions... Zombie Endocrine Disruptors May Threaten Aquatic Life Many U.S. ranchers implant cattle with the synthetic androgen trenbolone acetate to beef them up, but concerns have... Special News Package: Taming a Mercurial Element Mercury has beguiled people for centuries, but the heavy metal also poses serious health and environmental dangers... With Pact's Completion, the Real Work Begins More than 140 nations will meet next month in Japan to formally adopt the Minamata Convention on Mercury. It calls for... In Minamata, Mercury Still Divides The new global agreement to reduce mercury emissions is named after Minamata, a small seaside town in southern Japan...

Gridlock. Lawmakers can’t agree on legislation funding the U.S. government, which appears headed for a shutdown.


The Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate has voted to strip controversial provisions from a measure that would temporarily fund federal operations, setting up a clash with the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives that could result in a partial shutdown of the U.S. government at midnight. But some lawmakers are still hoping to avert a shutdown with a last-minute deal to keep the government open for a short time while the two sides continue to negotiate.


A shutdown would have broad impacts on federal science programs, including halting granting activity at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF), forcing most government scientists to stay home, and delaying work on NASA space missions. A small number of federal researchers deemed essential by their agencies would still report to work, such as those involved in caring for patients at NIH’s clinical research center, sustaining animal colonies in research laboratories, or handling weather data seen vital to public safety. Researchers who already have grant money in hand, or work for universities or companies that get money from the federal government, would not be immediately affected.


Science Careers has more on the story here, as do Gizmodo, Space.com, and Fisherynation.com.


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