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Science

Report Of Liquid Woolly Mammoth Blood Prompts Clone Talk

A file photo from 2011 shows a man touching a giant bronze sculpture of a mammoth in the Siberian city of Khanty-Mansiysk. A team of Russian and South Korean scientists who found a well-preserved frozen woolly mammoth carcass this month say it also included blood. Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP/Getty Images

The Two-Way

Report Of Liquid Woolly Mammoth Blood Prompts Clone Talk

Scientists in Siberia say they've extracted blood samples from the carcass of a 10,000-year-old woolly mammoth, leading to speculation that a clone of the extinct animal might someday walk the earth. But researchers say the find must be studied further to know its potential.

Education

Teacher Feature: Ethnobotanist Tom Carlson

"Office hours are some of my favorite hours of the week," says professor Tom Carlson, a medical doctor, ethnobotanist and instructor of 1700 students annually at the University of California, Berkeley. One of Carlson's former students, SciFri associate senior producer Christopher Intagliata, says Carlson's class got him on the path toward science. In this "Teacher Feature," Intagliata tells his former teacher what the class meant to him.

Huge Asteroid Makes Its Closest Pass To Earth Today

Radar images of asteroid 1998 QE2, taken when the cosmic traveler was about 3.75 million miles from Earth, revealed that the asteroid, with a 1.7-mile diameter, has a moon or satellite revolving around it. NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSSR hide caption

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NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSSR

The Two-Way

Huge Asteroid Makes Its Closest Pass To Earth Today

The space rock, which is nine times the size of a cruise ship, is dropping by Earth and it's not coming alone. Asteroid 1998 QE2 has already given scientists a surprise: It has its own moon, measured at about 2,000 feet wide.

Big-Mouthed Toucans Key To Forest Evolution

Channel-billed toucans are important seed dispersers in rain forests. Courtesy of Lindolfo Souto/AAAS/Science hide caption

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Courtesy of Lindolfo Souto/AAAS/Science

Animals

Big-Mouthed Toucans Key To Forest Evolution

As humans have cut into Brazil's forests, the toucan population has taken a dive. The trees, in turn, have changed, too: Without large-billed birds to eat fruit with big seeds, only trees with small seeds thrive. Eventually, one scientist says, "the impacts on the forest could be quite dramatic."

Michigan Tracks Cattle From Birth To Plate

Whenever a steer or cow leaves a farm in Michigan or goes to a slaughterhouse, it passes by a tag reader, and its ID number goes to a central computer that keeps track of every animal's location. Dan Charles/NPR hide caption

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Dan Charles/NPR

The Salt

Michigan Tracks Cattle From Birth To Plate

Would you like to know the life history of that steak before you eat it? Technology exists to give you that information, at least in Michigan, where the state government requires all cattle to carry an electronic tag for tracking purposes.

Baton Rouge's Corroded, Overpolluting Neighbor: Exxon Mobil

An evening view of the Exxon Mobil oil refinery complex in Baton Rouge, La. John W. Poole/NPR hide caption

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John W. Poole/NPR

Poisoned Places: Toxic Air, Neglected Communities

Baton Rouge's Corroded, Overpolluting Neighbor: Exxon Mobil

The Standard Heights neighborhood sits next to the nation's second-largest gasoline refinery. Recently, residents learned a new truth about the plumes of exhaust they see every day: Exxon Mobil's aging refinery and petrochemical facilities — like many others — are pumping out far more pollution than the law allows.

Smelted In Space? Ancient Iron Beads Linked To Meteorite

The metal in an Egyptian iron bead dating from around 3,300 BC has been found to have originated from space, according to analysis. Here, the bead is seen in (clockwise from top left) a photograph, a CT cross-section view, a model of nickel oxides, and a model in which blue areas represent the rich presence of nickel inside the bead. The Open University/University of Manchester hide caption

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The Open University/University of Manchester

The Two-Way

Smelted In Space? Ancient Iron Beads Linked To Meteorite

Since its discovery in 1911, an Egyptian iron bead has sparked debate over how it was produced — made around 3,300 BC, it predates the region's first known iron smelting by thousands of years. Now researchers say the iron was made in space, and delivered to Earth via meteorite.