Science News Archive - January 10, 2005

As NASA charts a bold new course into the future, the space agency is briefly taking a step back in time to examine a Tyrannosaurus rex skull.

Threatened by habitat loss, poaching, pollution and other factors, wildlife species across the globe are declining in number at an alarming rate. Scientists from the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in New York City have been monitoring endangered wildlife populations for more than 100 years.

NAI-funded research on cores recovered through the Joint Oceanographic's Ocean Drilling Program show that the activity of microbial life beneath the seafloor is far more diverse than expected. The 35 members of the expedition's scientific party, who represent more than seven nations, coauthored an article in Science entitled "Distributions of Microbial Activities in Deep Subseafloor Sediments."

The tsunami that killed thousands around the Indian Ocean was caught by a series of radar satellites, allowing National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists to develop measurements of the wave in mid-ocean.