January 2006 in science

Events in Science

January 30, 2006

• Prions may play an important role in stem cell function. (NewScientist)

January 27, 2006

• Researchers working on bubble fusion publish results in Physical Review Letters obtained from new experiments that try to avoid problems and criticisms with previous experiments. They still report positive indications of deuterium fusion through inertial confinement. (PhysOrg.com)
• Tokyo University announces that RNA researcher Kazunari Taira and his team have failed to prove that results published in their papers are reproducible. The team are also unable to provide the raw data. (Nature)

January 26, 2006

• Plans are announced to jettison a Russian spacesuit from the ISS on February 3 and follow its fate from Earth via amateur radio. The project is called SuitSat. (NASA)

January 25, 2006

• Researchers at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies announce their current estimate that the year 2005 was the warmest year since the start of instrumented record keeping in the late 1800. (AP/YahooNews)
• The smallest fish yet discovered is announced to the public. Paedocypris progenetica was found in its peat swamp habitat on Sumatra. (BBC)
• An OGLE collaboration's microlensing event (OGLE-2005-BLG-390) turns out to be caused by a star and its planet, the smallest exoplanet discovered to this date, now called OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb. The findings of an international investigation are published in Nature. (BBC) (SpaceRef.com)

January 24, 2006

• The analysis of a computer simulation of Titan's atmosphere is published in Science. An important result is the explanation for clouds observed at 40° southern latitude by the edge of a Hadley cell in this area. (SpaceRef.com)
• An American citizen admits to running a botnet of about 500,000 hijacked computers and leasing it out for creating pop-up advertising. (BBC)

January 22, 2006

• Canadian scientists publish a study in Science in which they tested 480 different soil bacteria and found "some resistance" to a major class of antibiotics in each strain. (BBC)

January 21, 2006

• NASA suspends work on Dawn asteroid mission and indefinitely postpones its launch due to cost overruns and technical issues. (AP/YahooNews)
• The IMAGE spacecraft stops operating after six years of providing data on Earth's magnetic field. Mission engineers discovered a broken power supply in December 2005. (AP/YahooNews)

January 20, 2006

• The New England Journal of Medicine sends a "letter of concern" to Norway's Radium Hospital in regard to oral cancer research published in that journal in 2001. (AP/YahooNews)

January 19, 2006

• The NASA spacecraft New Horizons launches successfully from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 2:00pm EST (19:00 UTC) and leaves Earth's orbit shortly afterwards on its journey to Pluto. (AP/YahooNews) (BBC)

January 17, 2006

• From nanobatteries which charge to 80% in a minute to Internet TV (IPTV); there is a lot to look forward to in technology for 2006. (Popular Mechanics)
• The editor of medical science journal The Lancet, Richard Horton, calls the fabrication of cancer research data done by a doctor at Norway's Radium Hospital, and published in a Lancet article, "the worst [fraud] the research world has seen." (Aftenposten)

January 16, 2006

• The Norwegian Radium Hospital halts a research study into oral cancer after it is alleged that patient data used for a publication in The Lancet were falsified. (BBC)

January 15, 2006

• The Stardust spacecraft touches down safely inside its intended landing area in Utah, close to the Army Dugway Proving Ground. (BBC)

January 14, 2006

• The CDC warns doctors to no longer prescribe the drugs rimantadine and amantadine to people with influenza. This recommendation is based on a recent study that shows about 91 percent of the currently circulating H3N2 virus has resistance to both drugs. (AP/YahooNews)

January 13, 2006

• The GIOVE-A satellite sends test signals from an altitude of 23,000 km to a ground station for the first time. (BBC)

January 12, 2006

• Astronomers at the Greenbank Radio Telescope, West Virginia, USA, have discovered the most rapidly rotating pulsar that rotates at 716 times per second (hertz), easily beating the previously known record of one rotating at 642 hertz.
• US District judge Naomi Reice tentatively approves a settlement between Sony and plaintiffs over the XCP CD copy protection software. (BBC)
• A study by the WHO shows that the recent H5N1 virus infecting humans in Turkey most likely carries a slight mutation to allow it to pass easier from birds to humans. (Washington Post via Boston Globe)

January 11, 2006

• A German research team publishes results of a study that shows ordinary plants produce the greenhouse gas Methane, possibly accounting for 10 to 30 percent of the world's total methane gas production. (BBC)

January 10, 2006

• A group of parents sue Frazier Mountain High in Lebec, California over the teaching of Intelligent design in a philosophy class. (AP/YahooNews)
• A panel of scientists conclude that all human cloning research by Hwang Woo-suk was faked. It also found that Snuppy is indeed the first cloned dog. (BBC)
• Members of the Stardust mission announce their intention to ask volunteers to find collected dust grains by using the Internet. The project will be called Stardust@home. (space.com/YahooNews)

January 6, 2006

• Microsoft releases a fix for the WMF vulnerability, ahead of schedule. (Reuters/YahooNews)

January 5, 2006

• The TOPEX/Poseidon satellite ceases operations after a 13-year mission (it was designed for a lifetime of five years) due to problems with its reaction wheel. (SpaceRef.com)

January 4, 2006

• Astronomers announce new data on Pluto's moon Charon obtained during an occultation of a star in July 2005. They conclude that Charon has no atmosphere and find its size to lie between 1,206 and 1,212 km. (AFP/YahooNews)

January 3, 2006

• The largest prime Mersenne number currently known is announced by researchers at Central Missouri State University as M_30402457. A computer program discovered it in December 2005. (AP/YahooNews)
• Microsoft announces it plans to deliver a patch for the WMF vulnerability by January 10, and discourages the use of third party fixes. (PCWorld/YahooNews)
• Iran's Atomic Energy Organization announces the resumption of research and development of its nuclear program by January 9. (Reuters/YahooNews)

January 2, 2006

• Several exploits of a severe Windows security vulnerability are spreading over the Internet, permitting compromise of any Windows computer merely by viewing a maliciously crafted image on a website or in e-mail or instant messaging. No patch from Microsoft is available. The vulnerability affects every version of Windows, potentially affecting more computers than any prior computer security vulnerability in history. (Microsoft.com) (CERT) (Slashdot) (Sans.org) (F-Secure.com)