Moth­ers in one deer spe­cies seem re­markably gen­er­ous in de­fend­ing oth­er par­ents’ kids, a study has found—but anoth­er deer spe­cies dis­plays much less gal­lant­ry.The two spe­cies re­sponded dif­fer­ently to fawns’ recorded dis­tress calls, ac­cord­ing to Su­san Lin­gle, who con­ducted the re­search as a post­doc­tor­al fel­low at the Un­ivers­i­ties of Al­ber­ta and of Leth­bridge, both in Can­a­da. Lin­gle used speak­ers to broad­cast calls of fawns un­der threat, such as when they face a coy­ote at­tack, to­ward ... [full story]

Two merg­ing black holes can gen­er­ate a re­coil so pow­er­ful, the merged hole shoots out of its host gal­axy at up to 2,500 miles per sec­ond, ac­cord­ing to a new com­put­er sim­ula­t­ion.Its cre­ators said the work shows for the first time that these vi­o­lent events, which fol­low merg­ers of ga­lax­ies con­tain­ing black holes, can to­tally eject the black holes. So these ti­ta­nic ob­jects may be cruis­ing through the un­iverse, vir­tu­ally in­vis­i­ble un­less they should crash ... [full story]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - On Thursday, NASA senior managers selected June 8 as the official launch date for space shuttle Atlantis. Commander Rick Sturckow and his six crewmates are scheduled to lift off at 7:38 p.m. EDT on the STS-117 mission to the International Space Station.During the 11-day mission and three spacewalks, the crew will work with flight controllers at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, to install a 17-ton segment on the station's girder-like truss ... [full story]

HOUSTON - Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov prepared this week for two spacewalks while Flight Engineer Suni Williams prepared for her return to Earth. In preparation for her successor's arrival, Williams' downlinked a 10-minute video tour for Clayton Anderson, who will travel to the station on the upcoming space shuttle flight.Mission managers gave a "go" for a May 30 Russian spacewalk to install orbital debris protection panels on the Zvezda ... [full story]

TRUE FACTS Gender in reptiles is determined two ways: either by sex chromosomes (as with mammals) or by temperature during embryonic development. Researchers have discovered that in at least one lizard species - the Australian central bearded dragon - both modes are in play, with high temperatures trumping genes to produce females. VERBATIM ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE - The esteemed English geneticist J.B.S. Haldane was not above using himself as a test subject. He was also ... [full story]

Sci­en­tists say a fe­male ham­mer­head shark gave birth with­out hav­ing sex—the first sci­en­tif­ic re­port that an an­cient line­age of ver­te­brates can re­pro­duce asex­u­al­ly, or with­out sex.The de­vel­op­ment star­tled sci­en­tists, and wor­ried them. Asex­u­al re­pro­duc­tion, es­pe­cially of the type in­volved in this case, leaves ba­bies at a “ge­netic dis­ad­van­tage” due to lack of ge­net­ic di­vers­ity, one said. This would place ex­tra bur­dens on al­ready threat­ened shark popula­t­ions. Among ver­te­brates, asex­u­al re­pro­duc­tion is known only in very ... [full story]

The food we eat could be promot­ing the dis­turb­ing spread of an­ti­bi­ot­ic-re­sist­ant in­fec­tions, sci­en­tists warn.Harm­less bac­te­ria in our food car­ry genes that pro­vide re­sist­ance to an­ti­bi­otics, the re­search­ers ex­plained. Once in our bod­ies, they might trans­mit these genes to di­s­ease-caus­ing bac­te­ria, mak­ing them more dan­ger­ous. “The mag­ni­tude of an­ti­bi­ot­ic-re­sist­ant bac­te­ri­al con­tamina­t­ion in the food chain is tremen­dous,” said Hua Wang of Ohio State Un­ivers­ity in Co­lum­bus, Ohio, who pre­s­ents the find­ings May 23 at the ... [full story]

Sat­urn’s larg­est, most compact ring con­sists of tightly packed clumps of par­t­i­cles sep­a­rat­ed by nearly emp­ty gaps, ac­cord­ing to new find­ings from NASA’s Cas­si­ni space­craft. These clumps in Sat­urn’s B ring are neatly or­gan­ized and con­stantly col­lid­ing, which sur­prised sci­en­tists, they said.“We orig­i­nally thought we would see a un­iform cloud of par­t­i­cles,” said Lar­ry Es­pos­ito, prin­ci­pal in­ves­ti­ga­tor for the Cas­si­ni ul­tra­vi­o­let im­ag­ing spec­tro­graph at the Un­ivers­ity of Col­o­rad­o, Boul­der.  This false-color im­age of Sat­urn's rings ... [full story]

PASADENA, Calif. - A patch of Martian soil analyzed by NASA's rover Spirit is so rich in silica that it may provide some of the strongest evidence yet that ancient Mars was much wetter than it is now. The processes that could have produced such a concentrated deposit of silica require the presence of water.Members of the rover science team heard from a colleague during a recent teleconference that the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer, a ... [full story]

HOUSTON - This week, the Expedition 15 crew unpacked new supplies and began preparing for the arrival of the next visiting spacecraft and two upcoming spacewalks at the International Space Station.The ISS Progress 25 docked to the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module at 12:10 a.m. CDT Tuesday. During the week, the crew began unloading the more than 5,000 pounds of cargo from the supply ship.Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov prepared ... [full story]

JUST ASKING How much deeper would the oceans be without sponges? (Pictured are Purple Tube Sponges) VERBATIM PRIME NUMBERS - Ninety-five percent of the world's leatherback turtles have disappeared in the Pacific Ocean in just two decades. CNS Photo. WHAT IS IT? - This is a sketch of skull of a babirusa, an endangered tropical forest pig easily identified by its distinctive tusks. CNS Photo. PURPLE TUBE SPONGES - How much deeper would the oceans be ... [full story]

EUGENE - University of Oregon researchers studying mosquitoes have produced the first chromosomal map that shows regions of chromosomes that activate – and are apparently evolving – in animals in response to climate change. The map will allow researchers to narrow their focus to identify specific genes that control the seasonal development of animals. Such information will help predict which animals may survive in changing climates and identify which disease-carrying vectors may move northward, allowing ... [full story]

A spacecraft automatically docked to the International Space Station early Tuesday, delivering 2.5 tons of food, fuel and supplies for the residents on board. The ISS Progress 25 linked up to the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module at 12:10 a.m. CDT Tuesday as the station sailed 208 miles above the Earth off the northeast coast of Australia. Within minutes, hooks and latches engaged between the two spacecraft to form a tight seal. The ... [full story]