SEPTEMBER 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.

QED: dogma and reason can co-exist
Millions of Serb children had a lucky escape this month, after their government stopped a 48-year-old woman from forcing them to remove their brains before attending biology lessons, writes Robert Matthews.

29 Sep 2004

Robert Matthews: Q&A
A stitch in time: how to avoid the painful bit of the cross-country run. Plus, is it possible to drive through the end of rainbow?

29 Sep 2004

Branson promises to send tourists into space by 2007
Sir Richard Branson has announced that Virgin will be sending the first tourists into space within three years.

29 Sep 2004

House flies 'will double in decades'
Britain's fly and maggot population will double in the next few decades, increasing the spread of disease, a study has found.

29 Sep 2004

Pesticides in 30pc of fruit and veg
Pesticides were found in almost a quarter of all food tested last year, according to a report.

27 Sep 2004

Rapid test 'may change the face of medicine'
The first DNA-based test that can diagnose a range of diseases within 30 minutes is to go on trial in British hospitals.

22 Sep 2004

Blair warns of climate catastrophe
Tony Blair has embarked on a mission to persuade America and Russia to face up to climate change.

22 Sep 2004

Anatomy of a child killer
Scientists now know how a virus creates havoc and how to stop it, reports Roger Highfield.

15 Sep 2004

Nasa space probe crashes to Earth
A £153 million mission to collect particles of the Sun has ended in disaster after the probe carrying the precious samples crashed into the Utah desert.

15 Sep 2004

Sun mission not a total disaster, says Nasa
Nasa scientists have said they were confident that samples extracted from the crashed Genesis space capsule could still yield valuable information about the solar system.

15 Sep 2004

Numbers game that reveals precious little
The only published measure of a surgeon's performance is the number of operations that they conduct.

15 Sep 2004

Women at greater risk in heart operations
Women have a consistently lower chance of surviving heart surgery than men, according to a report, which said their poorer outcome remained "an enigma".

15 Sep 2004

More data needed for table that shows top surgeons
Hopes that a huge survey of cardiac operations would reveal the best heart surgeons in the country have been dashed.

15 Sep 2004

More surviving heart surgery
The percentage of adults who die as a result of common heart surgery is lower in Britain than in the United States, a study of 210,000 patients has revealed.

15 Sep 2004

Part lizard, part parrot, all loving mother
Palaeontologists have discovered a 125 million-year-old nest, preserved in red-grey mudstone, in which an adult dinosaur is surrounded by 34 babies.

15 Sep 2004

Tiger moth in decline but Blair takes a bow
Two thirds of British moth species have declined over the past 35 years, with potentially devastating implications for wildlife, according to data gathered by a nationwide network of light traps.

15 Sep 2004

Muppets' screen chemistry
A poll of almost 43,000 people has shown Britain's most popular screen scientists to be a pair of Muppets - Dr Bunsen Honeydew and his hapless assistant Beaker.

15 Sep 2004

Day-old babies have eyes for a pretty face
Beauty does not lie in the eye of the beholder - it is hardwired into the brains of babies long before birth, according to research.

15 Sep 2004

£62m Biobank may not be worth it, says professor
The scientist who invented DNA fingerprinting two decades ago has warned that the world's biggest study of the role of nature and nurture in disease could cost billions and yet be of little medical benefit.

15 Sep 2004

Deadly bacteria thrive in badly kept spa pools
Legionnaires' disease could be spread through poorly maintained spa pools and hot tubs, researchers have revealed.

14 Sep 2004

Psychologists look into the eyes of
Wallace and Gromit
The antics of Morph, Wallace and Gromit and other Plasticine characters are to be analysed by psychologists

08 Sep 2004

Ion power takes spaceship to Moon
A spacecraft engine with echoes of Star Trek has been taken on its first test drive across the solar system, scientists have said.

08 Sep 2004

Animal experiments at 10-year high
New Home Office figures have shown that the number of animal experiments in the UK has risen to its highest level for 10 years.

08 Sep 2004

Health chief criticises mobile phone risks
A Government adviser has criticised the mobile phone industry for failing to make handset radiation levels available to the public.

07 Sep 2004

Watchdog to rule on 'designer' baby plea
The fertility watchdog will rule next week whether a couple can create a so-called "designer baby" to treat their seriously ill two-year-old son.

04 Sep 2004

Clone doctor took parents' cash for experiments
Fertility scientist Panos Zavos admits that he has taken money from the parents of a dead infant and of an 11-year-old girl in order to carry out cloning experiments on their remains.

01 Sep 2004

Planet hunters find Earth's 'big brothers'
Astronomers say their discovery of rocky new worlds will help to answer the age-old question: Are we alone in the universe? Roger Highfield reports.

01 Sep 2004