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EU Hints at Insecticide Ban over Threat to Bees

The European Commission hinted on Wednesday that it could ban several insecticides, some made by German chemicals giant Bayer, after scientists found disturbing evidence of harm to bees.

The EU's food saftey agency had reported "disturbing conclusions on three types of insecticides," a spokesman for EU Health Commissioner Tonio Borg said.

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Mars Rover Readies First Rock Drilling

The Mars rover Curiosity will soon begin to drill into the Red Planet for the first time, mission officials said Tuesday ahead of the highly anticipated endeavor.

Scientists behind the $2.5 billion mission also explained the nature of the small "Martian flower," which had caused a lot of buzz online because it was strikingly different from the surrounding rock.

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S. Korea Satellite Rocket Launch Set for Jan 30-Feb 8

South Korea will make another bid at the end of this month to put a satellite in orbit and gain entry to an elite global space club that includes Asian powers China, India and Japan.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced Wednesday a January 30-February 8 window for launching the 140-tonne Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1) from the Naro Space Center on the south coast.

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No Stars in 'Star Wars' Jump into Hyperspace

Remember that dazzling moment in the "Star Wars" movies when the Millennium Falcon goes into hyperspace and a kaleidoscope of stars streaks past the ship?

Sadly -- like a lot of things in sci-fi movies -- that really wouldn't happen, a team of British science students have calculated.

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Study Shows Chimps Possess a Sense of 'Fairness'

Chimpanzees, in a test of their willingness to share with other chimps, displayed a surprising sense of fairness, scientists say, debunking the idea that only humans boast that quality.

The researchers said they are the first to show chimpanzees have a sense of fairness and that this may have evolved over time to aid their survival.

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Australia Heatwave Part of Global Trend

Australia's extreme summer heatwave, which caused devastating bushfires and saw temperature forecasts go off the scale, is part of a global warming trend, the U.N.'s climate panel chief said Tuesday.

As the 250 lead authors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)'s next major report meet in the southern Australian city of Hobart, the body's chairman Rajendra Pachauri said the link was clear.

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Japan Scientists Breed Salmon from Surrogates

Japanese scientists have successfully bred a type of salmon using surrogate parents of a different species, in a breakthrough that could help preserve endangered creatures, the chief researcher said Tuesday.

Researchers froze the testes of the yamame salmon, a fish indigenous to Japan that lives its entire life in rivers, before extracting primordial germ cells and implanting them into otherwise sterile rainbow trout hatchlings.

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New Species of Flying Frog Discovered in Vietnam

An Australian researcher who discovered a new species of flying frog near Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam and named it after her mother said Tuesday it was a rare find so close to such a big city.

Helen's Flying Frog was first discovered by Jodi Rowley, an amphibian expert from Sydney's Australian Museum, in 2009 during a field trip to the forests fringing the city previously known as Saigon.

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Volcano Lava Flows Worry Italian Island

Spectacular lava flows and smoke from an active volcano on the Italian island of Stromboli on Monday sparked fear among inhabitants but geophysicists said the situation was under control.

Stromboli is part of the seven-island Eolian Archipelago just off Sicily in southern Italy.

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Climate: Monthly Heat Records Have Increased Fivefold

Global warming has caused monthly records for heat to increase five-fold in frequency, according to a study by scientists in Germany and Spain, published on Monday.

In parts of Europe, Africa and southern Asia, the frequency of months with record-breaking heat has surged tenfold, it said.

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