Or­di­nary cells of the body can be “re­pro­grammed” to be­come markedly si­m­i­lar to stem cells, the “mas­ter cells” that can grow in­to many dif­fer­ent or­gans and cure a range of dis­eases, sci­en­tists say.The find­ings are stir­ring ex­cite­ment be­cause stem cells are nor­mally ob­tain­able only from em­bryos, a pro­cess that or­di­narily kills the em­bryos and is thus fraught with eth­i­cal con­tro­ver­sy.Re­search­ers have be­gun fig­ur­ing out ways to create stem cells without kil­ling emb­ryos in the past ... [full story]

WASHINGTON - NASA's MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft will make its closest pass to Venus on Tuesday, June 5. This will place the spacecraft on target for a flyby of Mercury in January 2008. MESSENGER will be the first probe to visit the innermost planet in more than 30 years.Threading its path through an aim point 209 miles above the surface of Venus, MESSENGER will use the pull of the planet's ... [full story]

A research institute has applied for a pat­ent on what could be the first largely ar­ti­fi­cial or­gan­ism. And peo­ple should be al­armed, claims an ad­vo­ca­cy group that is try­ing to shoot down the bid.The idea of own­ing a spe­cies breaches “a so­ci­e­tal bound­ary,” said Pat Mooney of the Ot­ta­wa, Canada-based ETC Group, which is asking the pat­ent ap­pli­cants to drop their claim. Creat­ing and own­ing an or­gan­ism, he added, means that “for the first time, ... [full story]

PASADENA, Calif. - NASA space technology is helping doctors diagnose and monitor treatments for hardening of the arteries in its early stages, before it causes heart attacks and strokes. Hospitals and doctors around the country are using ArterioVision software initially developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., along with a standardized, painless, non-invasive ultrasound examination of the carotid artery, which carries blood from the heart to the brain.A standard carotid ultrasound measures plaque ... [full story]

HEIDELBERG, Germany - German and U.S. scientists said they have found a molecule in human genes that may cause fidgeting and make obesity less likely. The scientists found that mice with the molecule were more likely to be energetic and athletic, while mice without it were more likely to be lazy and put on pounds, the BBC reported Wednesday. The researchers said the genetic switch in the mice is also found in humans and is ... [full story]

HOUSTON - The Expedition 15 crew completed the first of three planned spacewalks this week and prepared for the upcoming arrival of space shuttle Atlantis to the International Space Station.On Wednesday, Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov stepped outside the station and installed five additional debris protection panels on the conical section of the Zvezda Service Module, the area between its large and small diameters. The aluminum debris protection panels are designed to ... [full story]

Barely one hour into a morning hike, Malcolm Sargent, international authority on mosses and liverworts, fell to his knees in Singing Woods Nature Preserve near a family of ancient white oaks. He dropped his head to the ground and peered through his hand lens at a verdant mass on the early spring forest floor.   A LOOK UP CLOSE - Dr. Malcolm Sargent, a world-renowned authority on moss and lichens, takes a close look at a ... [full story]

He's the man who gave all of us our name - Homo sapiens, a scientist whose presence is as near as the garden out the back door. Yet, for many, Swedish botanist and physician Carl Linnaeus may be an obscure personage last dredged up as an answer on a high-school exam.   KING OF KINGDOMS - Carl Linnaeus established a naming system for plants and animals. At right is his 1737 illustration of Browallia. CNS Photo ... [full story]

'TRUE FACTS' Homer Hickam's book "Rocket Boys," a memoir about growing up as an aspiring rocket scientist, was made into a 1999 movie called "October Sky" starring Jake Gyllenhaal. The two titles are anagrams. BRAIN SWEAT   PRIME NUMBERS - The Leaning Tower of Pisa weighs 14,200 tons … that's less than its 1908 weight of 14,486. CNS Photo.    WHAT IS IT - This is a scanning electron micrograph of a straw itch mite, magnified 1,500 times. ... [full story]

Did a comet hit the Great Lakes region and fragment humanpopulations 12,900 years ago? EUGENE, Oregon - Two University of Oregon researchers are on a multi-institutional 26-member team proposing a startling new theory: that an extraterrestrial impact, possibly a comet, set off a 1,000-year-long cold spell and wiped out or fragmented the prehistoric Clovis culture and a variety of animals across North America almost 13,000 years ago.Driving the theory is a carbon-rich layer of soil ... [full story]

Two International Space Station cosmonauts stepped outside Wednesday for a 5-hour, 25-minute spacewalk, installing Service Module Debris Protection panels and rerouting a Global Positioning System antenna cable.Wearing Russian Orlan spacesuits, Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov began their spacewalk from the Russian Pirs airlock at 2:05 p.m. CDT. The spacewalk was scheduled to begin at 1:20 p.m., but was delayed due to time required to troubleshoot a communications problem.First, the cosmonauts moved to ... [full story]

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A mechanical engineering professor and graduate students at Oregon State University will play a critical role in a $6 million joint research project aimed at better understanding how bats maneuver so effectively during flight. The research, funded by the U.S. Air Force, could one day lead to micro flying machines capable of navigating cluttered environments such as urban landscapes or dense forests. “Bats have amazingly effective maneuverability,” said Belinda Batten, head of ... [full story]

By ob­serv­ing wild orang­u­tans, re­search­ers have con­clud­ed that our up­right walk­ing style may have first aris­en in rel­a­tively an­cient, tree-dwelling apes. The the­o­ry chal­lenges cur­rent think­ing, which sug­gests two-legged walk­ing emerged in more re­cent hu­man an­ces­tors that had al­ready de­scended to flat lands. The new pro­po­sal ap­pears in the June 1 is­sue of the re­search jour­nal Sci­ence. Up­right walk­ing, or bi­pe­dal­ism, has long been con­sid­ered a de­fin­ing fea­ture of hu­mans and our clos­est an­ces­tors. One of ... [full story]