Secret mini-shuttle lands in California
VANDENBERG AFB, Calif., Dec. 3 (UPI) -- An unmanned U.S. military mini-shuttle launched from Cape Canaveral in April glided to an automated landing in California Friday, Air Force officials said.
After a 220-day classified mission, the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle touched down at 4:16 a.m. EST at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Florida Today reported.
The OTV-1 is the first U.S. unmanned vehicle to return from orbit and land on its own.
"We are very pleased that the program completed all the on-orbit objectives for the first mission," Lt. Col. Troy Giese, X-37B program manager, said in a statement.
"This marks a new era in space exploration," said Paul Rusnock, X-37B program director for The Boeing Co., the spacecraft's prime contractor.
During its test of orbital operations, the spacecraft opened its payload doors, extended a solar-power mast and utilized its maneuvering and control systems.
A second unmanned shuttle, OTV-2, is scheduled to be launched next spring, Florida Today reported.
Mercury may be turning Fla. birds gay
MIAMI, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Florida researchers say high mercury levels among wading birds in the Everglades may be hampering breeding efforts by turning some of the birds gay.
University of Florida researchers studied the mating behaviors and reproductive success of four captive groups of ibises fed varying levels of mercury during a three-year period, The Miami Herald reported Thursday.
In the first year, the researchers said, 55 percent of the males given the highest doses of mercury in their feed hooked up with other males during breeding season.
"They pretty much did everything except lay eggs," Peter Frederick, a UF wildlife ecologist said. "They built nests, they copulated, they sat in the nests together."
Mercury and other "endocrine disrupters" that affect hormones have shown a range of reproductive impacts on ducks and other birds, Frederick said.
It's not clear exactly what mercury does to the birds, Frederick said.
It may mix up nerve signals or reduce testosterone, giving males what he called a "feminized hormonal profile."
While the study raises concerns about mercury impacts on wildlife, Frederick dismissed the idea of connecting the result to humans, saying that would be a serious misinterpretation.
"Honestly, there is zero relevance for humans," he said.
Ca. 'Ghosts of the Forest' studied
SAN JOSE, Calif., Dec. 3 (UPI) -- California researchers say they are struggling to unravel the mystery of the "ghosts of the forest," rare albino saplings in the state's coastal redwood groves.
The world's only white evergreens, the rare genetic mutants appear and disappear seasonally, the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News reported.
Researchers at Stanford University and the University of California, Santa Cruz, are hoping to learn how such helpless trees can survive.
"It is a great puzzle," said Ghia Euskirchen, director of the DNA Sequencing Program at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Albinism is common in animals but it's very unusual in plants, because being green is central to a plant's existence since the plant pigment called chlorophyll is vital for photosynthesis. Without it, the trees have no way to manufacture the food needed for growth.
So the albino saplings of California can't live independently and remain sprouted on a parental trunk.
When conditions are bad, the parent tree withdraws all support and the seedlings perish, turning brown.
In times of abundant rain, they sprout again, flourishing.
"They come and go, like ghosts," Dave Kuty, docent at Cowell Park that has seven such trees, said. "They starve to death and shrink back. Then they reappear."
One redwood expert said it makes no sense.
"Almost everything that a redwood tree does is survival response," Cabrillo College historian Sandy Lydon, co-author of the book "Coastal Redwoods," said.
"The way they race for the sun. The way they regenerate. The way they respond if hit by lightning," he said. "Now here is something that has not a damn thing to do with any of that."
"I'm hoping that science can give us a clue," he said.
Study: Flu drug use safe during pregnancy
TOKYO, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- A Japanese study says influenza drugs such as Tamiflu are unlikely to cause major problems in pregnant women and their babies.
The study, released Thursday, was conducted by the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Kyodo News reported.
"The safety of the flu drugs was confirmed to a substantial extent," said Hisanori Minakami, the Hokkaido University professor in charge of the research.
"I recommend that pregnant women take the drugs and not worry too much about the side effects because taking them in the early stages of flu will keep the disease from growing severe," he said.
Fourteen women in the study took Tamiflu in the fourth to seventh weeks of their pregnancy, a period when most caution is needed in taking drugs, the researchers said.
Two of the 14, or 14 percent, had miscarriages but the natural rate of miscarriages is 15 percent and the researchers consider it unlikely the flu drugs caused them, Kyodo News said.
Babies born to women in the study will be in followup studies until they turn 2, the researchers said.
