Reuters Science News Summary
Following is a summary of current science news briefs.
Star formation theories challenged by new telescope discovery
Theories about how massive stars are born could be revised after astronomers in Chile found evidence that the dust and gas surrounding a young star could survive bombardment by the star's own radiation. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, or ALMA, observed a young star in the constellation of Scorpius that has a mass about 15 times greater than that of the Sun.
Fly us to the moon, UK space mission asks public
A British space venture is giving ordinary citizens the chance to leave their mark on the moon in a decade's time while helping scientists scout a possible location for a permanent base there. Lunar Mission One launched a crowdfunding drive on Wednesday to cover its start-up costs. By mid-morning organizers had raised around 74,000 pounds, according to the Kickstarter website, toward an initial target of 600,000 pounds ($940,000) they aim to reach within a month.
Want to live on the 'roof of the world'? Grow barley
The Tibetan Plateau, the harsh Asian domain known as the 'roof of the world,' would not seem an ideal place for people to call home thanks to its extreme altitude, frigid temperatures, relentless winds and low-oxygen conditions. When people did succeed in colonizing this remote land, it was only after they discovered how to feed themselves year-round with cold-hardy crops like barley brought to the region from far away, scientists said on Thursday.
HIV drugs show promise in treating common eye disease
A class of drugs used for three decades by people infected with the virus that causes AIDS may be effective in treating a leading cause of blindness among the elderly. HIV drugs called nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), including AZT and three others, blocked age-related macular degeneration in mice and worked well in experiments involving human retinal cells in the laboratory, researchers said on Thursday.
Deregulation at heart of Japan's new robotics revolution
Neurosurgeon Tetsuya Goto had just begun testing a robot to perform brain surgery when he discovered Japan was moving to tighten regulations that would shut down his seven-year project.
Over the next dozen years he watched in frustration as the da Vinci, a rival endoscopic robot that U.S. regulators had already approved, became a commercial success while his and other Japanese prototypes languished in laboratories.
U.S. Air Force 'pretty optimistic' about SpaceX certification
A top U.S. Air Force official on Wednesday said she is "pretty optimistic" that privately held Space Exploration Technologies will eventually be certified to launch U.S. military satellites into orbit but declined comment on the timing of such an action. The Air Force is working closely with the company, also known as SpaceX, to satisfy a series of requirements that would allow it to compete to launch costly and sensitive U.S. military and intelligence satellites.
