Grim fate awaits Earth, scientists say

WASHINGTON - The Earth is destined to dry up, burn up or freeze, scientists studying the planet's ultimate fate say. Don't worry about making final plans just yet: These catastrophic scenarios are at least 500 million years into the future. In the very, very long term, the Earth's future is grim, experts who spoke at the national meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science believe. James F. Kasting, professor of geosciences at Pennsylvania State University, said the sun gradually is getting brighter and hotter. Eventually it will raise the Earth's temperature, and that's when the troubles begin.

Endeavour mapping data thrills scientists

To collect the data, a transmitter aboard the shuttle beams a radar signal to a spot on Earth's surface. Two receptors on the shuttle record the signal that bounces back from Earth. The slight difference between the rebounded signals gives scientists a detailed picture of the terrain.

Instruments aboard the space shuttle Endeavour are collecting a treasure-trove of information on nearly every bump and fissure, every peak and valley on Earth's surface, delighting scientists of every stripe. The mission, scheduled to end Tuesday, will result in a digital, 3-D map of the planet from southern Alaska to Antarctica. The map, which will include more than 80% of Earth's land mass, will be more complete and detailed than anything before it. Geologists, cartographers and other scientists are cheering the information. They will use it for reasons as practical as evaluating the risk of flood in Africa and as esoteric as delving into Earth's history.

Humans threatening sharks' future

PACIFIC GROVE, Calif. - Marine researchers say the scariest thing about sharks isn't that they might be lurking in the murky depths. It's that they might not. Calling for an ''International Action Plan for Sharks,'' shark experts who gathered at the world's largest pelagic shark conference said the deep sea creatures are in serious decline, threatened by overfishing for their fins and meat. For example, off the Hawaiian Islands, shark finning - the practice of cutting off a shark's fin and throwing its carcass back into the ocean - increased 2000% between 1991 and 1998, said the Ocean Wildlife Campaign. Populations of several species, including the dusky and sandbar, have dropped 80% in just 10 years, according to the campaign.

Spacecraft orbits Eros asteroid

LAUREL, Md. - After a near-flawless rocket firing, a robot craft Monday became the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid, settling into a Valentine's Day rendezvous with a space rock named for the Greek god of love. The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft automatically fired for 57 seconds Monday morning and then signaled success to Earth. NEAR will spend a year in orbit of Eros, gathering basic research that may help humans defend the Earth against a ''killer asteroid'' like the one thought to have wiped out the dinosaurs. Ironically, photos taken during the approach captured an image of a heart-shaped crater on the surface of the asteroid.

Asteroid may miss Earth after all

The asteroid was first spotted by three astronomers led by Dr. James Scotti using the Spacewatch Telescope on Kitt Peak in Arizona on Jan. 28. It was tracked until Feb. 3, when it disappeared.

LOS ANGELES - An asteroid initially thought to be on a possible collision course with Earth in 2022 will miss the planet, astronomers said after reviewing new data collected by scientists around the world. Using the latest calculations, researchers determined that the orbiting rock will come no closer than 3.5 million miles in the next 50 years, said a mathematics professor at Pisa University in Italy. The half-mile-wide asteroid, 2000 BF19, is the fifth discovered in the last two years that researchers feared could hit Earth. A rock that size could do tremendous damage but would not cause planetwide destruction.

Dinosaur-bird link smashed in fossil flap

The "missing link" dinosaur-bird featured by National Geographic magazine in November is a fake. Archaeoraptor, the unofficial name of the fossil, is actually two animals pieced together either as an honest mistake made by its discoverers in China or as a breathtaking forgery. The composite, on display at the National Geographic Society in Washington until last week, consists of a birdlike upper torso and the tail and feet of a small raptor. The magazine described it as a "true missing link in the complex chain that connects dinosaurs and birds."

New talks on genetically altered products

Most issues unresolved:

Whether the agreement should cover all genetically modified organisms or just the minority being introduced in environment

If free trade rules set up by the World Trade Organization should apply to genetically modified organisms

Whether food products should be labeled to show they include genetically modified ingredients

Whether a mechanism should be set up to assess liability in case of biotechnology problems

TORONTO - What would happen if a genetically modified crop spread its seed to mix with unaltered plants? No one really knows the possible ramifications, and that is the problem facing hundreds of government ministers, environmentalists and other delegates converging on Montreal to try to agree on regulating trade of genetically engineered plants and animals. The meeting from Jan. 24-28 is sponsored by the U.N. Environmental Program and is an extension of failed talks 11 months earlier in Cartagena, Colombia, on what is called the Biosafety Protocol. The Cartagena meeting collapsed when six countries blocked a draft accepted by 125 other countries.

Infectious disease on rise among wildlife

WASHINGTON - Crowded living conditions, moving to new places and eating unusual foods can spread disease among wild animals, too. A new study warns that when it comes to the globalization of the planet, animals face a lot of the same hazards as people, including so-called emerging infectious diseases. ''We call it pathogen pollution,'' said the lead author of a paper appearing in Thursday's edition of the journal Science. These diseases can cause local extinction and in some cases total extinction of a species, he said. His team also warned that wildlife diseases not only threaten the future of the animals, but also may form a reservoir of germs that could harm people and domestic animals.

Online auction offers T. rex

WALTHAM, Mass. - A 25-foot-tall, 40-foot-long complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex went up for bid Monday morning on the Internet. Bidding started at $5.8 million and is expected to last about three weeks. It's not the first time owner Alan Detrich has tried to unload the 65 million-year-old skeleton. An online auction was canceled in July after several illegitimate bids by teen-age pranksters. The dinosaur was discovered eight years ago on a ranch in South Dakota and is one of the best preserved ever found. Detrich says he sees nothing wrong with auctioning off a piece of the Earth's history. After all, he said, he spent more than $250,000 of his own money unearthing it.

X-ray telescope captures new views

ATLANTA - A new space telescope has captured the most detailed images ever of one of nature's chemical factories, an ancient exploding star that is churning out elements essential to life. The $1.5 billion Chandra X-ray Telescope, launched last July, detected X-rays flashing from a 1,000-year-old supernova, or exploding star, and found streams of oxygen and other elements moving outward at more than two million miles an hour. ''These might be called the fountains of life because it was the explosion of such supernova that provided the oxygen on Earth,'' said a Massachusetts Institute of Technology astronomer and a member of the Chandra science team. The star is about 200,000 light years from Earth. Before it exploded, it was about 10 times more massive than the sun. A light year, the distance light travels in a year in a vacuum, is about 6 trillion miles.

Monkeys cloned by splitting embryos

WASHINGTON - Genetically identical monkeys are being cloned by Oregon researchers, who are splitting early-stage embryos and then implanting the pieces into mother animals. The technique has so far produced only one living rhesus monkey but a researcher at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland said four more animals are on the way. The goal, he said, is to produce identical monkeys that could be used to perfect new therapies for human disease. Most therapies are now first tested in mice, but monkeys are much closer to human biology and would be more reliable in developing new techniques such as gene therapy or growing new organs using stem cells, said Schatten. The study will appear Friday in the journal Science.

Kennewick man about 9,300 years old

SEATTLE - New tests on ancient bones that may hold the key to the origins of the first humans on this continent have reinforced previous estimates that the bones are more than 9,000 years old, scientists said Thursday. The official age of the bones means the skeleton, known as Kennewick Man, will likely be legally classified as Native American. But that is unlikely to end a custody battle over the remains. The age and origin of Kennewick Man have been in dispute since the human remains, among the oldest and most complete skeletons found in North America, were discovered in the shallows of the Columbia River in 1996. Scientists have speculated Kennewick Man may have been of European, Asian or Polynesian origin.



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