British robot helping autistic children with their social skills

LONDON (Reuters) - "This is nice, it tickles me," Kaspar the social robot tells four-year-old Finn as they play together at an autism school north of London.

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Space station debris shield floats away during spacewalk

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - A five-foot (1.5-meter) debris shield being installed on the International Space Station floated away on Thursday during a spacewalk by two veteran U.S. astronauts, a NASA TV broadcast showed.

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Brain implant lets paralyzed man feed himself using his thoughts

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A paralyzed man in Cleveland fed himself mashed potatoes for the first time in eight years, aided by a computer-brain interface that reads his thoughts and sends signals to move muscles in his arm, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

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Solar wind turned Mars into dry, cold planet: study

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Particles blasting out from the sun stripped away what was once a thick, Earth-like atmosphere on Mars, leaving behind a dry and cold world inhospitable to life, researchers said in a study released on Thursday.

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U.S.-UK alliance targets the world's deadliest superbugs

LONDON (Reuters) - Eleven biotech companies and research teams in Britain and the United States were awarded up to $48 million in funding on Thursday to speed development of new antibiotics powerful enough to take on the world's deadliest superbugs.

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SpaceX to launch first reused rocket, testing cost-cutting model

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - SpaceX is aiming for another space industry first on Thursday when it plans to launch a Falcon 9 rocket that has flown before, a key step in billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's quest to cut the cost of space flight.

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Australia scientists uncover dinosaur footprint that may be world's largest

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Scientists have found what could be the world's largest dinosaur footprint - measuring nearly 1.7 metres (5.6 ft) - on a remote part of Australia's northwestern coastline.

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Astronauts complete spacewalk to retrofit space station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Two spacewalking astronauts ventured outside the International Space Station on Friday for a 6-1/2-hour spacewalk, the first of three to prepare the orbiting laboratory for future commercial space taxis and to tackle maintenance chores, NASA TV showed.

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Scientists use graphene to power 'electronic skin' that can feel

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have found a way to power an experimental kind of electronic skin using solar energy in a further step towards the development of prosthetic limbs or robots with a sense of touch.

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SSL sues rival Orbital ATK over theft of trade secrets: lawsuit

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Space Systems/Loral is suing rival Orbital ATK over an alleged theft of proprietary data and business plans for an in-space satellite servicing technology, according to a complaint filed on Thursday.

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Revolutionary overhaul of dinosaur family tree proposed

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some of the best-known dinosaurs, like Tyrannosaurus rex and Brontosaurus, may be headed for a divorce due to irreconcilable differences.

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Brazil ramps up domestic space satellite, rocket programs

KOUROU, French Guiana (Reuters) - Brazil is developing technology to send domestically-made satellites into space with its own rockets by the end of the decade, aerospace executives and officials said ahead of the launch of the nation's first defense and communications satellite.

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Ancient quakes may point to sinking risk for part of California coast

SEATTLE (Reuters) - The Big One may be overdue to hit California but scientists near Los Angeles have found a new risk for the area during a major earthquake: abrupt sinking of land, potentially below sea level.

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First U.S. bumble bee added to endangered species list

(Reuters) - The rusty patched bumble bee became the first wild bee in the continental United States to gain federal protection on Tuesday when it was added to the government's list of endangered and threatened species.

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Scientists launch campaign to restore Pluto to the planet club

(Reuters) - A team of scientists seeking to restore Pluto to planethood launched a campaign on Tuesday to broaden the astronomical classifications which led to its demotion to a "dwarf planet" a decade ago.

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Scientists find how using 'satnav' switches off parts of brain

LONDON (Reuters) - If you have long feared that using a "satnav" navigation system to get to your destination is making you worse at finding the way alone, research now suggests you may be right.

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Breathe easy: nose shape was influenced by local climate

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The human nose, in all its glorious forms, is one of our most distinctive characteristics, whether big, little, broad, narrow or somewhere in between. Scientists are now sniffing out some of the factors that drove the evolution of the human proboscis.

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Newer type 2 diabetes drugs show heart protective quality in study

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A newer class of type 2 diabetes drugs significantly cut the risk of death and hospitalization for heart failure compared with other medicines for the disease, according to data released on Sunday from a so-called real world study sponsored by AstraZeneca.

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Miniature lab begins science experiments in outer space

HERZLIYA, Israel (Reuters) - Orbiting the earth at more than 500 kilometers (300 miles), a tiny satellite with a laboratory shrunk to the size of a tissue box is helping scientists carry out experiments that take gravity out of the equation.

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When it comes to peacock mating, plumage size matters: study

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - The size and width of a peacock's proud plumage attracts the gaze of males likely sizing up rivals and of females potentially looking for mates, a survey released on Wednesday showed.

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SpaceX defeats Boeing-Lockheed partnership for GPS launch contract

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies has won a GPS satellite launch contract over rival United Launch Alliance, a partnership of the top two U.S. aerospace companies Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co., the U.S. Air Force said on Tuesday.

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Fossils from 1.6 billion years ago may be oldest-known plants

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fossils unearthed in India that are 1.6 billion years old and look like red algae may represent the earliest-known plants, a discovery that could force scientists to reassess the timing of when major lineages in the tree of life first appeared on Earth.

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Arctic ice loss driven by natural swings, not just mankind: study

OSLO (Reuters) - Natural swings in the Arctic climate have caused up to half the precipitous losses of sea ice around the North Pole in recent decades, with the rest driven by man-made global warming, scientists said on Monday.

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SpaceX scrubs rocket launch in Florida due to high winds

(Reuters) - Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, on Tuesday delayed the launch of a rocket set to carry a commercial communications satellite into orbit, because of high winds at its Florida launch site.

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Hate daylight saving time? You may have a point, researchers say

NEW YORK (Reuters) - For most Americans, daylight saving time means only one thing: losing an hour's sleep. So what is the point?

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How about some tasty woolly rhinoceros for dinner?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ancient DNA from dental plaque is revealing intriguing new information about Neanderthals including specific menu items in their diet like woolly rhinoceros and wild mushrooms as well as their use of plant-based medicine to cope with pain and illness.

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Complex synthetic life moves closer with designer yeast genome

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have taken a big step toward designing complex forms of life from scratch by constructing five new artificial chromosomes of baker's yeast, representing a third of the micro-organism's genome, or genetic blueprint.

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Bezos' rocket company Blue Origin signs Eutelsat as first customer

(Reuters) - Blue Origin, a rocket company owned by Amazon.com Inc Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos, has signed France's Eutelsat Communications SA as its first customer for satellite launch services, he said on Tuesday.

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China to launch lunar space probe before year's end

BEIJING (Reuters) - China announced plans on Tuesday to launch a space probe to bring back samples from the moon before the end of the year, in what state media cast as competition to U.S. President Donald Trump's ambitions to revitalize U.S. space exploration.

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Mars astronaut radiation shield set for moon mission trial: Developer

HAIFA, Israel (Reuters) - A vest designed to shield astronauts from deadly solar particles in deep space is set for trials on a lunar mission ready for deployment on any manned mission to Mars, its Israeli developers said.

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China to develop space rockets to launch from planes: state paper

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China will develop rockets that can be launched into space from aircraft, a senior official told the state-run China Daily newspaper, as Beijing aims to send hundreds of satellites into orbit for military, commercial and scientific aims.

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Europe launches fifth Sentinel Earth observation satellite

(Reuters) - Europe launched the fifth of its Sentinel Earth observation satellites on Monday as part of its multi-billion-euro Copernicus program to provide speedy images of land, oceans and waterways.

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Work on brain's reward system wins scientists a million euro reward

LONDON (Reuters) - Three neuroscientists won the world's most valuable prize for brain research on Monday for pioneering work on the brain's reward pathways - a system that is central to human and animal survival as well as disorders such as addiction and obesity.

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NASA Mars satellite shifts course to avoid hitting planet's moon

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - A NASA science satellite orbiting Mars was forced to make a rare evasive maneuver to avoid a collision next week with one of the planet's two small moons, the U.S. space agency said on Thursday.

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Canadian bacteria-like fossils called oldest evidence of life

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Microfossils up to almost 4.3 billion years old found in Canada of microbes are similar to the bacteria that thrive today around sea floor hydrothermal vents and may represent the oldest-known evidence of life on Earth, scientists said on Wednesday.

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Ancient human tree cultivation shaped Amazon landscape

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ancient indigenous peoples had a far more profound impact on the composition of the vast Amazon rainforest than previously known, according to a study showing how tree species domesticated by humans long ago still dominate big swathes of the wilderness.

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Scientists create first artificial mouse 'embryo' from stem cells

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists in Britain have for the first time created a structure that resembles a mouse embryo using a 3D scaffold and two types of stem cells - research which deepens understanding of the earliest stages of mammalian development.

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New minerals back idea of man-made epoch for Earth: study

OSLO, (Reuters) - Scientists have identified more than 200 minerals created as side-effects of human industries in a sign that mankind's imprint on the Earth is so deep that it marks a new geological epoch, a study said on Wednesday.

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Hundreds of North American bee species face extinction: study

(Reuters) - More than 700 of the 4,000 native bee species in North America and Hawaii are believed to be inching toward extinction due to increased pesticide use leading to habitat loss, a scientific study showed on Wednesday.

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Snooze news: elephants may sleep less than any other mammal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - There's an old saying that elephants never forget. You also can say they almost never sleep.

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Laser technique sheds light on pivotal Chinese feathered dinosaur

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A technique using high-powered lasers to reveal hidden soft tissue alongside bones in fossils is giving scientists insight into one of the major evolutionary transitions in the history of life: small feathered dinosaurs taking flight as birds.

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NASA inks deal with Boeing for extra rides for astronauts

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - NASA will pay Boeing Co up to $373.5 million for rides to fly up to five astronauts to the International Space Station aboard Russian Soyuz capsules, the U.S. space agency said on Tuesday.

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