LONDON, Dec. 26 (UPI) -- Scientists were still awaiting the first signal from the little Beagle 2 lander Friday afternoon, signaling its safe touchdown on Mars.

The U.S. Mars orbiter Odyssey passed over the Beagle's planned landing zone at about 18:15 GMT (1:15 p.m. EST), but apparently failed to detect any radio transmissions. The Beagle carries about as much power as a cellular telephone.

Despite the setback, the scientist leading the Beagle 2 landing project said he has not given up hope of contacting the missing Mars explorer, the BBC reported.

The British-built probe presumably landed on the red planet early Christmas day, but a sweep of Mars by the Jodrell Bank radio telescope failed to detect any sign of the probe, giving rise to fears it could have crashed. An attempt to listen for Beagle's call home by the Westerbork telescope array in the Netherlands was interrupted by strong radio interference. The radio telescope at Stanford University in California will attempt to listen for the carrier signal on Dec. 27.

Professor Colin Pillinger told a news conference Friday the robotic probe was programmed to make several more transmissions in the coming days.

If it landed safely, he said, Beagle was designed to survive on its automated systems for weeks, if not months. "It's very much like sending somebody a love letter -- you know they've got it and you're waiting for their response," he said.

The European Mars Express spacecraft, on which the Beagle 2 rode to the red planet, entered orbit around Mars on Dec. 25.

Faculty stop invading purple loosestrife

HOUGHTON, Mich., Dec. 26 (UPI) -- A team of Michigan Tech University faculty recently turned back a pretty but intrusive invader: the purple loosestrife.

The loosestrife, a perennial wetland plant known for its heartiness and stability, was taking over a pond near the campus.

But a specific beetle, Galerucella calmariensis, whose natural predator is the ladybug, has been found to have great success in controlling purple loosestrife invasions.

So faculty from the school's Forest Research and Environmental Science visited researchers at Michigan State University and came back with 20 pots of purple loosestrife stumps on which 50 to 100 beetles were living.

Ten pots of beetles were released at the Houghton High School pond and 10 were released along the Pike River Bridge, where there was also a purple loosestrife problem.

"We released the beetles in the summer of 1998, and by 2002 only one purple loosestrife plant could be found near the Houghton High School pond," said researcher Leah Vucetich, according to Science Daily. "Biological controls are fairly controversial, and the outcome is not always certain."

But in this case, "the beetles had a dramatic effect and worked great at the pond."

Report: Locking up children needs study

TAMPA, Fla., Dec. 26 (UPI) -- The University of South Florida at Tampa has issued a study advocating a review of the practice of locking up disturbed children.

The study expresses particular concern over children who are committed more than once or twice under the state's Baker Act, which allows authorities to lock up mentally ill people if they are a danger to themselves or others.

The Tampa Tribune said the study, completed in November, says the problems of children whose periods of emotional and anger are so intense they must be locked up has been poorly researched and requires further and deeper study.

"We need to know about the lives of these kids," said Petrila, chairman of the university's Department of Mental Health Law and Policy.

"When kids are repeatedly put through this process, it suggests there are significant issues with their care," Petrila told the Tribune.

Energy found in frozen gas-water mix

WASHINGTON, Dec. 26 (UPI) -- The "ice-like" combination of natural gas and water found in oceans and polar regions could be an energy source, the U.S. Geological Survey said Friday.

For the first time, an international research program involving the Department of the Interior's U.S. Geological Survey has proven that it is technically feasible to produce gas from gas hydrates.

Gas hydrates are a naturally occurring "ice-like" combination of natural gas and water.

At a symposium in Japan Friday, the successful results of the first fully integrated production testing of gas hydrates are being discussed by an international gathering of research scientists.

The international consortium, including the USGS, the Department of Energy, Canada, Japan, India, Germany, and the energy industry conducted test drilling at a site known as Mallik, in the Mackenzie Delta of the Canadian Arctic. This location was chosen because it has one of the highest concentrations of known gas hydrates in the world.

The estimated amount of natural gas in the gas hydrate accumulations of the world greatly exceeds the volume of all known conventional gas resources.