Stardust parachutes to soft landing in Utah with dust samples from comet

Nearly seven years after setting off in pursuit of comet Wild 2, the Stardust return capsule streaked across the night sky of the Western United States early Sunday, making a soft parachute landing in the Utah desert southwest of Salt Lake City. Special helicopter-borne teams secured and recovered the capsule, containing tens of thousands of comet grains and as many as 100 bits of interstellar dust, shortly after it landed.

Genetic Fingerprint unmasks Microbial Vandals

For the first time DNA analysis can identify paper-degrading microorganisms. This is made possible by a molecular process developed for fungal infected documents at the University of Vienna with support from the Austrian Science Fund FWF. Fungal species can now be clearly identified by means of a DNA region known as ITS1, making it easier to choose effective countermeasures for conserving historic documents.

Bird flu in mammals spreads beyond site of infection to other organs

Researchers have demonstrated systemic spread of avian influenza virus in cats infected by respiratory, digestive, and cat-to-cat contact. Avian influenza (H5N1) is of great concern because of the current outbreaks in Asia and the potential for pandemic spread. This virus is highly contagious in birds and spreads easily due to the agricultural and migratory nature of the bird species infected, including poultry, water fowl, and other migratory species.

Guidelines Needed to Help Care for Children During Emergencies

Evidence-based guidelines for the care of children in emergency situations should be developed and distributed to international relief organizations, according to researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the World Health Organization (WHO). In a review of published literature, the researchers found that the highest mortality rates following armed conflicts, natural disasters, population displacements or famines are often in children younger than five years.

IT reshaping the real estate landscape

Computers and the Internet have been billed as enabling new ways of doing business, but in the residential real estate industry, people’s expanded access to information hasn’t rendered the real estate agent a relic, says a Penn State researcher. “The expectation was that real estate agents would go away once consumers could see all the home listing information, but the number of real estate agents has increased, not decreased, in the last 10 years,” says Steve Sawyer, associate professor in the School of Information Sciences and Technology (IST).

Federal safety standards for blood lead may be too high

Federal safety standards for blood lead may be too high to prevent prenatal damage resulting in diminished intelligence later in childhood. According to a study recently accepted for publication in Environmental Health Perspectives, maternal blood lead levels well below the current standard of 10 micrograms per deciliter (µg/dL) during pregnancy had a significant negative impact on children’s intelligence up to age 10. Low-level lead exposure may be more harmful to the developing brain before birth than after birth.

The Huygens landing: One year on

One year ago this week, on 14 January 2005, ESA’s Huygens probe reached the upper layer of Titan’s atmosphere and landed on the surface after a parachute descent 2 hours and 28 minutes later. As part of the joint NASA/ESA/ASI mission to Saturn and its moons, the Huygens probe was sent from the Cassini spacecraft to explore Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. Titan’s organic chemistry may be like that of the primitive Earth around 4000 million years ago, and may hold clues about how life began on our planet.

Improved Armored Vests Reflect Changing Enemy Tactics

U.S. military members serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and other dangerous locales will soon receive revamped armored vests that provide more side protection, senior officials said today. The vest changes are designed to prove effective in protecting servicemembers from shrapnel fragments, especially those who man gun turrets atop vehicles, Maj. Gen. Steven Speaks, the Army’s director of force development, said during a teleconference call with military analysts.

Quasar Study Highlights Stars That Ended the ‘Dark Ages’

A team of astronomers has uncovered new evidence about the stars whose formation ended the cosmic “Dark Ages” a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. In a presentation today at the annual winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), California Institute of Technology graduate student George Becker is scheduled to discuss his team’s investigation of several faraway quasars and the gas between the quasars and Earth. The paper on which his lecture is based will be published in the Astrophysical Journal in March.