UPI NewsTrack Health and Science News

Comet catcher closing in on target

BETHESDA, Md., Dec. 31 (UPI) -- A space ship launched five years ago to analyze a comet is in position to accompish its mission, Maryland's Discovery News reported Wednesday.

Known as Stardust, the robotic scout has traveled some two billion miles to get to the far side of the sun so it can analyze one-thousandth of an ounce of dust from the Wild-2 comet.

The rendevous -- at exactly 2:20 p.m. EST -- will be quick, with Stardust traveling at 13,650 mph relative to its target.

Engineers programmed the probe to approach Wild-2 from above, then dip below, allowing itself, in effect, to be run over.

The maneuver has been planned to get Stardust within about 186 miles of the comet's core -- close enough to trap some particles for return to Earth but far enough away to avoid being damaged or destroyed by the comet's debris.

"This could prove to be a pivotal time for science," said Donald Brownlee, principal scientist for the Stardust mission.

"There's a museum out there in the outer solar system that has preserved our building blocks, and it is going to be an absolute thrill to have this stuff to look at."

New Hampshire still battling meningitis

CONCORD, N.H., Dec. 31 (UPI) -- New Hampshire nearly got its sixth full meningitis case in the last two weeks, the Manchester Union Leader reported Wednesday.

The latest case involved a 65-year-old Manchester area woman who was treated with antibiotics promptly enough that she did not contract the full-blown ailment, Dr. Jesse Greenblatt said. Her bloodstream was infected with the meningococcus bacteria, but it had not crossed over to the spinal fluid, he said.

Bacterial meningitis has claimed one woman's life and infected four teenage boys in the last two weeks. The case announced Tuesday represents the first non-teenager to become infected in the recent cases in northern, central and southwestern New Hampshire.

The woman went to Catholic Medical Center in Manchester after she first developed symptoms of the disease Monday, state Health and Human Services Commissioner John Stephen said.

The first two cases were detected Dec. 20 and 21 in Brady Ells and Louis Gilman, both 15-year-old sophomores at Monadnock Regional High School in Swanzey.

Internet creator Berners-Lee knighted

LONDON, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- British physicist Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the World Wide Web -- or at least better access to it -- has been awarded a knighthood in London.

Without his creation, there would be no computer addresses, no e-mail and the Internet might still be the exclusive domain of a handful of computer experts, the Independent reported.

Berners-Lee, 48, was named in the New Year's Honors List for "services to the Internet" -- creating the system that has revolutionized computer use across the globe.

He devised the system in his spare time in 1991 while working as a researcher at the European particle research laboratory Cern, which is based in Switzerland.

Instead of patenting the system or restricting it use, Berners-Lee gave his invention away, making it possible for the Web to grow at a fast rate.

"I'm very honored, although it still feels strange," Berners-Lee said. "I feel like quite an ordinary person, and so the good news is that it does happen to ordinary people who work on things that happen to work out, like the Web."

361 Manatees die in Florida waters

MIAMI, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Through Dec. 19, 361 endangered manatees died in Florida waters this year, but only 70 of them died from boat propellers.

The death toll was the highest on record, but the boating deaths were the lowest since 1998, the Fort Myers News-Press reported Wednesday.

The record of 415 deaths came in 1996, when red tide plagued the Florida Gulf Coast. The low figure for boating deaths was 66 in 1998.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission was not sure for the reason for the total number of deaths. Officials said the reduction in boating deaths may be because of speed restrictions in manatee areas.

The commission tries to do a census of manatees, but an accurate count is almost impossible because weather determines their location.

The count was a record 3,276 in 2001, fell to 1,796 in 2002 and went back up to 3,001 in 2003. The counts are taken early in the year.