Beekeepers sue to ban pesticide
Commercial beekeepers and environmental organizations have filed a lawsuit against federal regulators for not banning the use of two pesticides they say harm honeybees.
In the suit, filed by the Center for Food Safety in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco last week, the group asks the Environmental Protection Agency to suspend the use of insecticides clothianidin and thiamethoxam - known as "neonicotinoids," a class of chemicals that act on the central nervous system of insects.
The chemicals - used to treat corn, cotton and other crops against pests - build up over time in the soil, plants and trees.
Beekeepers and some scientists have for years blamed the pesticides for higher bee die-offs.
Invasive carp have big spawning area
Asian carp are reproducing in more places and under more varied conditions than experts had believed they could - yet another reason to worry about the greedy invader's potential to infest waterways and crowd out native species, scientists said.
Research based largely on data from their homeland has indicated the carp can spawn successfully only under the right circumstances, including temperatures of about 70 degrees and long stretches of continuously flowing water.
But a study from Purdue University has found their eggs in places that previously were considered unsuitable. The findings are particularly sobering for the Great Lakes, where scientists say the carp could threaten the $7 billion fishing industry if they spread widely.
NASA extends Hubble contract
NASA has extended the contract for operating the Hubble Space Telescope.
The telescope is operated by the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. The space agency said the three-year contract extension is worth an estimated $76 million and runs through April 2016.
The institute serves as the science operations center for the Hubble and will be the science and mission operations center for the James Webb Space Telescope after its launch.
The Hubble was launched in 1990 and has been one of the space program's proudest achievements, providing breathtaking pictures of distant galaxies.
Shuttle astronauts repaired the aging space telescope in 2009 during a series of spacewalks. That mission was expected to extend the telescope's life another five to 10 years.
Rover Curiosity back on the job
The Mars rover Curiosity is humming again after being sidelined by back-to-back computer problems.
The six-wheel rover fired up its onboard laboratories and analyzed a pinch of rock dust over the weekend. It had been unable to do science experiments since late last month after experiencing a computer memory problem.
Mission managers said Curiosity will work for a week before it takes another break - this time planned - because the sun will block communications between Earth and Mars.
Before the computer woes, Curiosity drilled into a rock, tested the powder and found it contained some of the chemical ingredients necessary for microbial life.