|  Computer science now top major for women at Stanford University  | By Sarah McBride SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Computer science has for the first time become the most popular major for female students at Stanford University, a hopeful sign for those trying to build up the thin ranks of women in the technology field. Based on preliminary declarations by upper-class students, about 214 women are majoring in computer science, accounting for about 30 percent of majors in that department, the California-based university told Reuters on Friday. If more women majored in technological fields like computer science, advocates say, that could help alleviate the dearth of women in engineering and related professions, where many practitioners draw on computer science backgrounds.
| Read More » Boom in gene-editing studies amid ethics debate over its use The hottest tool in biology has scientists using words like revolutionary as they describe the long-term potential: wiping out certain mosquitoes that carry malaria, treating genetic diseases like sickle ... Read More » Apollo Photos Redux: The Story Behind the NASA Moon Pics Posted to Flickr  | The addition of tens of thousands of the Apollo astronauts' moon photos to an online repository drew worldwide media interest this week, but lost in many of the headlines were the facts behind the four-decade-old photographs. Numerous news articles declared the photos were "never before seen" and attributed the upload to NASA, neither of which were true. "Contrary to some recent media reports, this Flickr gallery is not a NASA undertaking, but an independent one," said Kipp Teague, the founder of the Project Apollo Archive, in an introduction he wrote for the newly-added gallery.
| Read More » It's a Great Time to Spot the Elusive Planet Mercury: Here's How  | Over next three weeks, we're going to be treated to a show being staged in the eastern twilight skies by three bright planets: Jupiter, Mars and Venus. Presently, Jupiter, Mars and Venus can be seen in the predawn sky stretched out in a diagonal line in that order, going from lower left to upper right. In fact, in the coming days Jupiter seems intent on having separate meetings with two his companions.
| Read More » Scientists predict drier Horn of Africa as climate warms  | By Megan Rowling BARCELONA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The Horn of Africa is becoming drier in step with global warming, researchers said on Friday, contradicting some climate models predicting rainier weather patterns in a region that has suffered frequent food crises linked to drought. A new study using a sediment core extracted from the Gulf of Aden found the East African region covering Somalia, Djibouti and Ethiopia has dried at an unusually fast rate over the past century. Lead author Jessica Tierney, an associate professor at the University of Arizona, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation the research team was confident the drying was linked to rising emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases, and was expected to continue as the region heats up further.
| Read More » Nobel laureate chemist Richard Heck, 84, dies in Manila  | American chemist and Nobel laureate Richard Heck died in Manila on Saturday after years of illnesses that left him almost penniless, relatives of his Filipina wife said on Saturday. Heck, 84, along with Japanese Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki, won the Nobel prize in chemistry in 2010 for inventing new ways to bind carbon atoms that were used in research to fight cancer and produce thin computer screens.
| Read More » Ice Age Mammoth Bones Discovered on Michigan Farm  | Two Michigan farmers made an unexpected discovery in a wheat field last week: the ice-age bones of a mammoth that was likely slaughtered by ancient humans. An excavation and analysis of the bones suggest they come from an adult male mammoth that had an unlucky end. "We think that humans were here and may have butchered and stashed the meat [in a pond] so that they could come back later for it," Daniel Fisher, a University of Michigan paleontologist who led the excavation, said in a statement.
| Read More » Killer Show! Murder Weapons and Death Masks Star in New Exhibit  | A shovel used to bury the body of a murder victim in 1910, an antique-looking gun that fired a shot at Queen Victoria in 1840 (it missed) and death masks from convicted criminals: These are among the strange and grisly artifacts associated with some of the most notorious crimes in recent British history. And they are now on display in the "Crime Museum Uncovered" exhibit that opens today (Oct. 9) at the Museum of London. The exhibit's storied artifacts are on loan from the Crime Museum — a private gallery of objects retained from prisoners and crime scenes, which is located at the Metropolitan Police headquarters at New Scotland Yard in London.
| Read More » Marble Caves and Neolithic Stones Shine in UK Photo Contest  | On a cold, drizzly afternoon, Brent Bouwsema drove with his wife and two children to photograph some of the oldest stones in the British Isles. Geologists think the Callanish Stones, which are made of an ancient type of rock called Lewisian gneiss, were built in the Neolithic period about 5,000 years ago. Bouwsema took a photo of the moss-covered pillars, and ended up as one of the winners of the "100 Great Geosites" photography contest, The Geological Society of London announced today (Oct. 9).
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