 | 2008 AUGUST
August 26, 2008
Bloggers Answered Your Questions on Covering Conventions, Politics
Kety Esquivel is the founder and a blogger for Crossleft.org, a progressive Christian Web site. Liza Sabater is a blogger and the founder of culturekitchen.com. They answered your questions on the power of new media and the future of political news reporting.
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| August 22, 2008
High Tech High School Pushes Hispanic Students to Become Top Achievers
A San Diego charter high school is aiming to close the education gaps between students of immigrant families and their counterparts by motivating them to acquire business and science skills and pursue college degrees. Paul Solman offers the latest in a series of reports on this education initiative.
     
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| August 22, 2008
90 Years Later, 1918 Flu Lives on in Antibodies, Research
Ninety years after the 1918 flu pandemic claimed the last of its approximately 50 million victims, antibodies to the virus live on in people exposed to it as children -- and the pandemic itself is still inspiring research and debate among scientists.
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| August 20, 2008
Countries Map Arctic Boundaries to Build Cases for Resource Rights
As a scramble builds to establish rights over the valuable natural resources hidden under the Arctic sea floor, U.S. researchers embarked from Barrow, Alaska, in mid-August on a three-week mission to map regions of the vast underwater landscape.
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| August 18, 2008
Bottling Giant, Maine Residents Battle over Water
Bottled water is a hot commodity -- Americans drank almost 9 billion gallons of it last year. But some Maine residents think less of it should come from their state. They are challenging Poland Spring over rights to the state's spring water aquifers. Tom Bearden reports.
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| August 15, 2008
Satellite Imaging Program Records Darfur Destruction
Geographers at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Office of Science and Human Rights are using satellite images to document destroyed villages in Darfur and other areas. Project director Lars Bromley describes the challenges of documenting human rights abuses using geospatial technologies.
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| August 15, 2008
Coastal 'Dead Zones' Continue to Spread, Study Finds
Huge swaths of the world's oceans are too starved of oxygen to support shrimp, crabs, fish and other marine life, and these so-called dead zones are growing virtually unchecked, according to a new study.
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| August 14, 2008
Stone Age Graveyard Unearthed
A paleontologist looking for dinosaur bones in the Sahara desert instead stumbled across the largest Stone Age graveyard ever found. View a slide show of the excavation.
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| August 14, 2008
Scientists Find Stone Age Burial Ground From Once-green Sahara
A team of paleontologists inadvertently discovered the remains of a Stone Age cemetery in the Sahara desert, revealing clues about the lives of the hunter-gatherers who lived in the once-temperate region. A lead researcher details the finds.
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| August 8, 2008
World's Most Powerful Particle Accelerator Set to Launch
Stretching 17 miles around, a mammoth machine that straddles the Swiss-Franco border will soon start launching the biggest experiments ever attempted in high-energy physics.
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| August 6, 2008
Justice Department, Unsealed Papers Outline Anthrax Case Against Dead Scientist
The U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday that Army scientist Bruce Ivins "was the only person responsible" for the mailed anthrax attacks that killed five people and rattled the nation in 2001.
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| August 6, 2008
Air Pollution in China
Atmospheric chemist Kenneth Rahn regularly travels to China to consult with scientists there about the country's air pollution problem. Rahn took your questions about pollution in Beijing during the run-up to the Olympic Games.
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| August 5, 2008
Endangered Gorilla 'Mother Lode' Uncovered in Republic of Congo
A survey of the vast swamps and forests in the northern Republic of Congo has revealed 125,000 western lowland gorillas living there, more than double the previous known tally of the endangered animal.
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| August 1, 2008
Researchers Find Drug That Mimics Effects of Exercise
Scientists announced this week that they've found a chemical compound that allows mice to run 44 percent longer on a treadmill -- without doing any exercise. Lead researcher Ronald Evans discusses the results and what they could mean for humans.
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| August 1, 2008
Scientists Create Stem Cells From Lou Gehrig's Disease Patients
In a stem cell research breakthrough, scientists have reprogrammed skin cells from two elderly patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis -- also called ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease -- to act like stem cells.
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| August 1, 2008
FCC Rules Comcast Violated Internet Access Policy
A divided Federal Communications Commission ruled Friday that Comcast Corp. violated federal policy when it blocked Internet traffic for some subscribers. The cable giant has been ordered to change the way it manages its network.
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| JULY
July 31, 2008
California Science Center Moves to a 'Green' Home
The California Academy of Sciences, founded in 1916, has a new home in a modern, energy-efficient building in San Francisco, aimed at raising public awareness of the natural world. Spencer Michels explores the unconventional museum amd the challenges of the move.
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| July 31, 2008
Scientists Find Liquid Lake on Saturn's Moon
Researchers have spotted a liquid lake on Saturn's moon Titan, making that moon the first celestial body shown to have fluid on its surface. But this isn't a lake you'd want to swim in -- it's made up of ethane, one of the components of crude oil.
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| July 25, 2008
Oregon Mulls Shoring Up Schools Against Earthquakes
Moved by the collapse of schools and deaths caused after a recent earthquake in China, leaders in Oregon debate the need to fortify their own schools against possible earthquake damage. Lee Hochberg reports on the debate.
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| July 25, 2008
Scientists Discover What Makes the Northern Lights Dance
Scientists and stargazers alike have long been fascinated by the auroras, also known as the northern and southern lights -- the bands of light that stretch and sometimes dance across the night sky near the earth's poles.
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| July 23, 2008
Why can't the U.K.'s fuel efficient vehicles be sold in the U.S.?
Paul Solman answers this question and many more in the "Business Desk."
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| July 18, 2008
Biotech Companies, Investors Look to Adult Stem Cell Research
In June, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced that it was investing $3 million in a small San Diego-based biotech startup called EyeCyte, which will work to develop adult stem cell-based treatments for eye diseases.
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| July 17, 2008
Gore Aims High on Renewable Energy Goal for U.S.
Former Vice President and Nobel laureate Al Gore outlined a bold climate goal for the nation Thursday, challenging the U.S. to create every kilowatt of electricity through renewable energy sources within 10 years.
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| July 15, 2008
A Right to Online Privacy?
How much information should online advertisers and Web site operators know about you? And how should they be able to use this information? Congress is trying to establish rules so that the rights of both online users and advertisers are protected.
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| July 11, 2008
Study: One-third of Coral Reef Species Face Extinction
Nearly a third of the world's coral reef species face extinction, threatening entire ocean ecosystems.
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| July 10, 2008
Lunar Water Signs Found in Apollo Mission Rocks
A new analysis of moon pebbles collected decades ago has found that the small stones contained traces of water, according to a report Thursday in the journal Nature by Brown University geologist Alberto Saal and his colleagues.
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| July 10, 2008
Alaskan Village Copes With Real-life Impacts of Global Climate Change
In Shishmaref, Alaska -- a 600-person village 20 miles south of the Arctic Circle -- residents are feeling the effects of climate change: earlier sea ice melts and increasing storm surges. Tom Bearden reports on how the residents are coping.
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| July 9, 2008
Issue of Online Privacy Grows as Companies Track 'Digital Footprints'
A Senate panel held a hearing Wednesday to investigate the growing issue of online privacy and what rights individuals should have to decide how their Web surfing history can be used by advertisers. Public policy advocates weigh the debate over online privacy.
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| July 9, 2008
G-8 Vows to Cut Emissions but Divisions Remain
Leaders of the Group of Eight nations agreed Tuesday to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050. But on Wednesday, a group of five emerging economies refused to sign the deal, saying they want more aggressive emissions cuts. A reporter examines the story.
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| July 8, 2008
G-8 OKs Plan to Halve Global Emissions by 2050
Leaders of the Group of Eight industrialized nations agreed Tuesday on a target of cutting climate-changing gas emissions in half by 2050 -- an agreement lauded by the participants but rebuked by some environmentalists.
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| July 7, 2008
High Oil Costs May Advance Conservation Research
Car owners have been wincing in recent months as the price of oil has shot up well over the once-unimaginable $100-per-barrel mark. But an economist at Carnegie Mellon University believes that skyrocketing oil prices are a good thing, and will lead to necessary innovations in conservation and green technologies.
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| July 1, 2008
Study: HIV Mortality Rates Continue to Drop as Treatments Improve
More than a decade after antiretroviral treatments for HIV first debuted, HIV mortality rates have declined dramatically and they continue to drop in countries where patients have access to the drugs.
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| JUNE
June 30, 2008
Ore. Discovery Challenges Beliefs About First Humans
Until recently, most scientists believed that the first humans came to the Americas 13,000 years ago. But new archaeological findings from a cave in Oregon are challenging that assumption. Lee Hochberg of Oregon Public Television reports on the controversial discovery.
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| June 27, 2008
In Warming World, Plants Seek Higher Ground
Rising temperatures are forcing plant species to migrate up mountains in search of a cooler climate, according to a new study of Alpine plants published Thursday in the journal Science.
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| June 26, 2008
Scientists to Begin Mapping the Cocoa Genome
Chocolate maker Mars Inc. will fund a five year, $10 million project to map the cocoa bean genome -- work that could lead to hardier, higher-yielding crops and better quality chocolate, the company announced Thursday.
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| June 25, 2008
As Oil Prices Rise, Carmakers Look to Electric Future
Rising oil prices and improvements in battery technology are fueling new interest in developing electric cars. Spencer Michels reports on how industry giants and start-up car companies alike plan to release new vehicles by 2010.
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| June 25, 2008
Extended Interview: Tesla Motors Chairman Elon Musk
NewsHour correspondent Spencer Michels talked in April to electric car maker Tesla Motors' founder and chairman, Elon Musk -- an entrepreneur who previously founded PayPal -- about the future of the electric car.
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| June 25, 2008
Extended Interview: Mary Nichols, California Air Resources Board
Spencer Michels talked to Mary Nichols, head of the California Air Resources Board, in April about the board's recent decision to cut the number of zero-emission vehicles the state will require car manufacturers to build. The board aims to encourage manufacturers to produce more hybrid vehicles instead.
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| June 25, 2008
Transparent Fish Give Cancer Research a Boost
Richard White is an oncologist at Children's Hospital Boston and instructor at Harvard Medical School -- but lately, he's also gained fame as an animal breeder.
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| June 23, 2008
Midwest's Levees, Land Use Questioned Amid Floods
More than two dozen levees along the Mississippi and its tributaries have broken under heavy flooding, leaving many communities questioning the region's levee system and land usage. Elizabeth Brackett reports from Illinois on the struggle to keep levees standing.
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| June 23, 2008
McCain to Pitch Car Battery Prize as Obama Aims at Oil Speculators
Sen. John McCain is expected to propose his own sort of X Prize later Monday, namely a $300 million reward for the invention of a car battery that far outpaces those commercially available in cost, size, and power.
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| June 20, 2008
NASA Lander Discovers Evidence of Ice on Mars
NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander found evidence of water-based ice on Mars, confirming some scientists' theories. Scientist Peter Smith of the University of Arizona discusses the discovery.
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| June 19, 2008
Three Years On, New Orleans Still Struggles With Hurricane Debris
Nearly three years after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the city is still coping with the toxic debris the storm left behind. Betty Ann Bowser reports from New Orleans on the ongoing controversy over the city's landfills.
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| June 19, 2008
New Orleans Struggles to Curtail Illegal Dumping
An industrial stretch of New Orleans East has long been home to illegal dumps. The situation grew worse after Hurricane Katrina produced more than 62 million cubic feet of debris. NewsHour correspondent Betty Ann Bowser discusses the city's illegal dumping problem.
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| June 13, 2008
Low Levels of Vitamin D Tied to Numerous Health Ailments, Studies Find
Men with low vitamin D levels are more likely to suffer heart attacks than men with healthy levels of the vitamin, according to a study released this week.
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| June 6, 2008
U.S. on Track to Break Tornado Records This Year
The first half of 2008 has already marked the deadliest tornado season this decade. As many as 1,000 tornadoes have already touched down in the U.S. since January, more than the country sometimes sees in a full year.
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| June 6, 2008
Climate Change Bill Blocked, Left to New Congress
Republican senators blocked a proposed global warming bill Friday that would have led to major reductions in greenhouse gases, calling it a huge tax increase.
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| June 5, 2008
World Leaders Pledge to Ease Food Crisis After Political Squabbling
World leaders at a United Nations food summit pledged Thursday to reduce trade barriers and boost agricultural production to combat the food crisis that is spreading hunger and violent unrest across the globe.
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| June 3, 2008
Extended Interview: General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner
The NewsHour interviewed General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner in May about the company's plans for developing alternative fuel vehicles. Excerpts of the interview will air in the coming weeks as part of a report on a new generation of electric cars.
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| June 2, 2008
Researchers Examine Impact of Exercise on Aging
Scientists have coined a new term -- geroscience -- to describe research that aims to slow down aging and delay the onset of age-related diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Researchers are studying the underlying genetic causes of aging and effects of exercise.
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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
