Supply spacecraft misses space station
HOUSTON, July 2 (UPI) -- An unmanned Russian spacecraft carrying supplies to the International Space Station missed its rendezvous because of a malfunction, officials said.
A telemetry failure affected radio contact necessary to complete the docking, NASA said on its Web site Friday
The Progress cargo freighter craft, launched Wednesday, passed the station and the gap between them is widening, NASA said.
Carrying 2.5 tons of supplies, the spacecraft "literally flew past the International Space Station, but at a very safe distance," NASA mission commentator Rob Navias said from the U.S. Mission Control Center in Houston.
Navias said the craft passed at a distance of several kilometers.
Supplies on board the malfunctioning Progress are not considered critical to station operations, Navias said, as another one of the supply craft is docked at the station now.
Further attempts to dock with the space station have been ruled out for today, NASA said.
Genetic markers can predict longevity
BOSTON, July 2 (UPI) -- Genes can accurately predict how long a person will live, and they may provide clues to treat or prevent age-related diseases, a U.S. study says.
The study at Boston University identified a small set of DNA variations called genetic markers that can predict "exceptional longevity" with 77 percent accuracy, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.
There's no one single "longevity gene," the study published in the journal Science said, but rather a cumulative effect of almost 150 markers, and different people show different markers.
"The study shows that there are different paths to becoming a centenarian," BU graduate student and co-author Nadia Solovieff said. "People age in different ways."
Genes are not the whole story, the study said. For most people, environment and lifestyle play equally important roles in aging.
Research on the genetic markers could be used to develop drugs for age-related diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and Alzheimer's, which occur at much lower rates in centenarians, the study suggests.
Centenarians, people 100 or older, account for about one out of every 6,000 people in the United States, where the average life expectancy is about 78 years,.
"It's kind of like winning the lottery," study co-author Dr. Thomas Perls said.
Solar power could create fuel for cars
ALBUQUERQUE, July 2 (UPI) -- Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could soon be used to create fuel to drive the word's cars and trucks, a U.S. researcher says.
Solar-powered technology could be used to "photosynthesize" hydrocarbon fuels that present-day vehicles could run on without major modifications, The Daily Telegraph reported Friday.
Solar reactors can take carbon dioxide and turn it into carbon monoxide and can also turn water into hydrogen and oxygen.
The results can react with a catalyst to form hydrocarbon fuels, in a technique known as the Fischer-Tropsch process.
Tests have been conducted with solar reactors in New Mexico and Zurich, Switzerland.
Using solar energy to create usable fuel is a possible way to satisfy the world's energy demands while minimizing carbon emissions, Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution told Britain's New Scientist magazine.
"This area holds out the promise for technologies that can produce large amounts of carbon-neutral power at affordable prices, which can be used where and when that power is needed," he said.
Study says cellphones affecting beehives
CHANDIGARH, India, July 2 (UPI) -- Scientists in India say they are examining a possible cause of declines in bee populations around the world -- cellphones.
A study looking at "electropollution" of the environment says radiation from the ubiquitous communication devices is having a negative impact on honeybees, the New York Daily News reported Thursday.
Researchers at Panjab University in Chandigarh, India, placed cellphones near a beehive and powered them up twice a day for 15 minutes over a period of three months.
The scientists say honey production ceased, the queen laid only half as many eggs and the number of bees in the hive decreased dramatically.
"Increase in the usage of electronic gadgets has led to electropollution of the environment," wrote Ved Prakash Sharma and Neelima Kumar, the authors of the report in the journal Current Science.
"Honeybee behavior and biology has been affected by 'electrosmog' since these insects have magnetite in their bodies, which helps them in navigation," the researchers wrote.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the bee population last year dropped 30 percent.
Scientists call the phenomenon, occurring around the world, "colony collapse disorder." Theories on its cause range from viruses to parasites, insecticides and malnutrition -- and now, possibly, cellphones.
