Science News

The Iranian government announced Feb. 3 that it had successfully launched live animals into space.

The Feb. 2 launch of the Kavoshgan 3 rocket came a year after Irans launch of its 27-kilogram Omid store-and-forward telecommunications satellite and was accompanied by a Feb. 3 unveiling of three new Iranian-built satellite designs and a new rocket engine.

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Researchers have proposed an alternative to those wavy, distorted random words or word-number combinations, called “captchas,” that Web site visitors must decipher to complete online transactions.

Captchas were developed over a decade ago to cut down on the malicious use of automated computer programs, known as bots.

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Go out on any clear night this week and look south and, assuming you live in the Northern Hemisphere, you will see one of the best known star groupings in the sky, the constellation Orion.

Betelgeuse and Bellatrix mark his shoulders, and Saiph and Rigel mark his knees. In between is a perfect line of three equally bright stars canted at an angle: Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka comprise the Belt of Orion.

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A new panorama of a cosmic nebula offers an up-close glimpse of baby stars being born.

The new view was captured by the European Southern Observatorys Very Large Telescope in the Atacama desert of Chile. The cosmic panorama displays the rich texture of the surrounding clouds of gas and dust in the area, with many of the hot newborn stars dotting the scene with blue light.

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Three U.S. soldiers traveling with Pakistan security force members were killed Wednesday and one wounded in a roadside bombing in northwest Pakistan that also injured dozens of schoolgirls, officials said.

The U.S. Embassy declined to comment. If the deaths are confirmed by American authorities, they would represent a major victory for militants close to the Afghan border who have been hit hard in recent months by a surge in U.

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Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) said on Wednesday its North American and Japanese dealers had received several dozen complaints concerning what drivers characterized as insufficient braking on its new Prius hybrid car when driving over bumpy or frozen roads.

The third-generation Prius has become a core volume-seller for the worlds biggest automaker, and is now Japans top-selling model.

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President Barack Obama is meeting with governors from coal-producing states, hoping to earn their support for a languishing energy bill and to bolster his image as a leader willing to work with Republicans as well as Democrats.

Many pieces of those proposals were likely to win Republican support on Capitol Hill, where GOP allies have been elusive for a Democratic White House looking to pass controversial cap-and-trade legislation that would limit the nation’s emissions.

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Punxsutawney Phil might be an expert at shadow spotting, but texting? Not so much.

Officials with the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club didn’t immediately return calls about Phil’s texting skills.

About two hours after the famous groundhog “saw” his shadow and predicted six more weeks of winter, the rodent’s inaugural stab at text-messaging appeared.

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Ni hao - hello - Mei Lan! Chinese zookeepers are advertising for a tutor to teach Chinese to an American-born giant panda arriving this week in her parents’ homeland.

Under a deal between China and the U.S., all giant pandas originally from China are only lent out to foreign zoos for scientific study for several years.

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Iran successfully launched a rocket on Wednesday carrying a mouse, turtle and worms into space for research purposes, the country’s defense minister said.

Iranian state television broadcast images Wednesday of officials putting a mouse, two turtles and about a dozen creatures that looked like worms inside a capsule in the rocket before it blast off.

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