JANUARY
2004
This section
features key science stories from The Daily Telegraph's
online news service at www.telegraph.co.uk.
Click on the links for the full story.
Deft
snips, fast quips and a riot of colours
If Dr Michael Perelman had been awake for the operation, he
would have been proud of the great riot of colour going on inside
his chest. Staring at Dr Perelman's heart from the comfort of
a small cinema near the Science Museum wasn't gruesome, but
it was beautiful.
30
Jan 2004
Briton's
open-heart surgery is broadcast live
A cardiologist goes under the scalpel in America as a London
audience watches, reports Roger Highfield
30
Jan 2004
Nasa
accused of painting Mars red
The American space agency Nasa has been accused of doctoring
its pictures of Mars to make the Martian surface conform to
our impression of the famously red planet
29
Jan 2004
Ecosystem
at risk as drug kills vultures by million
Tens of millions of vultures have died after eating cattle carcasses
contaminated with a common animal drug
29
Jan 2004
Animal
lab scrapped in face of protests
Cambridge University and the Government were accused of buckling
under pressure from animal activists after scrapping plans for
a medical research centre that would conduct live experiments
on monkeys
28
Jan 2004
Telegraph
winner is off to Milan
28
Jan 2004
Only
the eagle-eyed will spot a fake...
Natural history film-makers should be allowed to manipulate
images but not distort the truth, says David Attenborough
28
Jan 2004
Pictures
of Mars by rover No 2 thrill Nasa
The final stage of Earth's invasion of Mars got under way when
the second Nasa rover, a golf cart-sized buggy called Opportunity,
successfully bounced on to the Red Planet's surface
26
Jan 2004
A
baby dragon, or a bad joke?
A pickled "dragon" that looks as if it might once
have flown around Hogwarts has been found in a garage in Oxfordshire
24
Jan 2004
Secret
of the red planet: Water found on Mars
Europe's Mars Express probe has found the first direct evidence
of water on Mars, raising hopes of alien life and boosting plans
to send a manned mission there
24
Jan 2004
Heart
operation will be shown live on TV
A British man was invited last night to have his open-heart
surgery shown live from an operating theatre in America to a
London audience
24
Jan 2004
Mars
rover sends a beep of alarm
The curse of Mars may have struck again. After the apparent
loss of Britain's Beagle 2 lander, Nasa reported hat it had
lost contact with Spirit as the rover was about to study a rock
on the red planet
23
Jan 2004
Don't
wake me up . . . I'm being creative
Scientists have produced the first hard evidence to show that
sleep helps problem solving
22
Jan 2004
Fertility
chief's contempt for cloning doctor
Panos Zavos, the doctor who claims to have begun cloning experiments,
"deserves nothing more than contempt", says the head
of Britain's fertility watchdog
21
Jan 2004
Mars...
a big step for womankind?
It's not just physical dangers astronauts have to contend with.
Psychological friction is a big problem – especially for
men, says Raj Persaud
21
Jan 2004
Making
cars bird-proof
Claire Bithell, one of last year's winners in the The Daily
Telegraph/BASF Science Writer Awards, reports on extreme measures
to improve your car's bodywork
21
Jan 2004
Hubble
is abandoned to its lonely vigil in space
As Nasa turns its attention to Mars, the orbiting telescope
faces an uncertain future without shuttle maintenance missions.
David Derbyshire reports
19
Jan 2004
Feel-good
herb may offer HRT alternative
Black cohosh, a herb used to treat the menopause, may be a safe
alternative to hormone replacement therapy (HRT) despite earlier
studies linking it to breast cancer
17
Jan 2004
Scientists
support Gwyneth's grey day moan
Gwyneth Paltrow recently described the British sky as "very
small and very grey and impenetrable." Patriots howled.
Now scientists are springing to her defence
17
Jan 2004
Don't
sleep with your baby
Parents were advised last night not to share their bed with
a young baby after new evidence that the practice increases
the risk of cot death
16
Jan 2004
The
changing guidelines on how to
cut cot death risk
In 1991, when the television presenter Anne Diamond lost her
five-month-old baby Sebastian to sudden infant death syndrome,
Government advice was clear - babies should be placed on their
fronts to avoid the risk of choking and vomiting
16
Jan 2004
MP's
plea wins change to law on 'baby bonds'
Ministers have agreed to change the rules on "baby bonds"
to help parents of disabled children pay for their care, following
the intervention of a Tory MP
16
Jan 2004
Advice
to parents
First wheel tracks on Mars as the robot rover gets rolling
The Spirit rover successfully rolled on to Mars yesterday, placing
its six wheels on Martian soil for the first time since landing
nearly two weeks ago
16
Jan 2004
Village
protesters force masts to be removed
Scientists advising the Government dismissed protesters' health
fears about mobile phone masts yesterday saying they were even
less likely to pose a risk than the phones themselves
15
Jan 2004
Experts
dismiss mobile phone cancer threat
There was no evidence linking mobile phones to cancer or other
health problems but more research needed to be done to be sure,
a panel of experts have said
15
Jan 2004
Big
trouble in the bio bubble...
The visionary Biosphere 2 has been beset by problems from the
start. Roger Highfield reviews the unsustainable sustainability
project
14
Jan 2004
Emotions
keep us disgustingly healthy
The emotion of disgust evolved to help to protect us from infectious
disease, according to scientists
14
Jan 2004
Nasa's
Martian rover nearly ready to roll
Nasa scientists are readying the Spirit rover to roll down a
ramp on to Gusev Crater after a delay in its mission to find
evidence of water on Mars
13
Jan 2004
Spraying
with milk can cure plant mildew
Spraying diluted milk over plants can cure mildew without the
need for chemical fungicides, according to a study
13
Jan 2004
To
boringly go where they've gone before
The first images of Mars cost £800m
to collect and showed a barren, rocky landscape; 28 years on,
pictures of Mars have cost a mere £200m - and show a barren,
rocky landscape. Robert Matthews asks what America keeps going
back for
11 Jan
2004
US
plan to put men on Mars
The United States is to return to the Moon, building a settlement
there as a launch pad for a manned mission to Mars, President
George W Bush is due to announce next week
10 Jan
2004
Sex,
meat and toothpaste blamed for failing tests
Lenny Paul, the British bobsleigher, blamed the mince in his
spaghetti bolognese for his failed nandrolone test
10 Jan
2004
The
astronomical costs and risks of president's dream missions to
Mars
Once again an American president has offered a vision of humanity
leaving the cradle of Earth and spilling out into the stars
10 Jan
2004
Scottish
farmed salmon 'is full of cancer toxins'
Farmed Atlantic salmon from Scotland contains the highest levels
of cancer-causing chemicals in the world, a new survey has found
09 Jan
2004
Climate
change threatens a million species
A million species worldwide are threatened with extinction by
climate change over the next half century, according to a comprehensive
analysis by scientists
08 Jan
2004
'Best
chance' of finding Beagle 2 fails
Hopes for Beagle 2 were all but abandoned yesterday after its
mothership failed to make contact with the missing British Martian
probe
08 Jan
2004
Wildlife
in peril around the world
The predicted impact of climate change by 2050 includes
08 Jan
2004
Where
science is the prize subject at school
The reason that The Royal High School in Bath scooped so many
prizes in the nation's most prestigious science writing competition
is revealed
07
Jan 2004
Apes
of war... is it in our genes?
Research into the aggressive behaviour of male chimpanzees,
our closest biological ally, suggests that the urge to go to
war is in our DNA and that only women can stop it, says Sanjida
O'Connell
07
Jan 2004
Time
shift dilemma of the 'slaves to Mars'
Life on Earth is taking on a Martian timescale for the scientists
and engineers monitoring Nasa's mission to the Red Planet
06
Jan 2004
Beagle
team refuses to give up hope
The news of Spirit's successful bounce-down on the red planet
marked a double blow for Prof Colin Pillinger, the head of Britain's
ill-fated Beagle 2 Mars lander effort
05
Jan 2004
Pictures
from Mars confirm triumph for Nasa
A robot rover sent back pictures of a bleak Martian landscap
after making a fiery descent through the atmosphere, launching
a new Nasa mission to uncover evidence that the Red Planet was
once suitable for life
05
Jan 2004
Stardust
tames the Wild comet
Dozens of close-up images of a distant comet that show the frozen
ball of rock and ice spewing jets of dust and gas have been
taken during a risky mission to capture samples and return them
to Earth
05
Jan 2004
Animal
activists take monkey lab plan to court
A Cambridge University proposal to build a monkey laboratory
to study brain disorders has faced a High Court challenge
03
Jan 2004
13,000mph
probe tries to catch comet dust
A space probe attempted to fly through the tail of a comet last
night, aiming to capture a sprinkling of comet dust that will
eventually be returned to Earth for analysis
03
Jan 2004
Nasa
golf buggies prepare for rough landing on Mars
Spirit, one of a pair of six-wheeled robot laboratories, bounces
down on to the Red Planet on Sunday morning after a 300 million-mile
journey
02
Jan 2004
Milky
Way map shows the way to other civilisations
The hunt for extraterrestrials has become a little easier after
the discovery that up to 10 per cent of stars in our galaxy
may harbour conditions necessary for complex life to emerge
02
Jan 2004
Food
'conveyor belt' in southern ocean
Almost all marine life on the planet turns on a single ocean
circulation pattern in the Southern Hemisphere which pumps nutrient-rich
water from the deep and spreads it across the seas, scientists
report
01
Jan 2004
