WASHINGTON (Reuters) - scientists using DNA testing have confirmed the second-known instance of "virgin birth" in a shark -- a female Atlantic blacktip shark named Tidbit that produced a baby without a male shark.

[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]If you're worried about news reports of West Nile virus, you might want to go take a census of the birds in your backyard. Because certain species of birds actually help the virus thrive. And they're not exactly exotic jungle fowl. In fact, they’re our more familiar feathered friends. [More]

A culture of neglect and, at some age levels, outright social ostracism, is derailing a generation of students, especially girls, deemed the very best in mathematics, according to a new study.

A new study, "Cross-Cultural Analysisof Students with Exceptional Talent in Mathematical Problem Solving,"appearing in the November 2008 Notices of the AmericanMathematical Society, brings together decades of data from severalextremely high-level mathematics competitions for young people. Thesedata show that there exist many females with profound intrinsicability in mathematics. What is more, whether this ability isidentified and nurtured is highly dependent on socio-cultural,educational, or other environmental factors.

The last two trips back to Earth by Russian spacecraft were not for the timid. Plunging to the ground on an alarmingly steep path, the ships landed hundreds of miles off course after subjecting crews to a ride so rough they found it hard to breathe.

AP - scientists have confirmed the second case of a "virgin birth" in a shark.

In a study reported Friday in the Journal of Fish Biology, scientists said DNA testing proved that a pup carried by a female Atlantic blacktip shark contained no genetic material from a male.

Scale Model for ArmorA living fossil could inspire tomorrow’s armor. Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, funded by the U.S. Army, investigated the primitive fish Polypterus senegalus, nicknamed the “dinosaur eel” for the suit of armor it sports. In experiments mimicking bites from a predator, the researchers found that each scale is made of three layers on a bone support that all complement one another to defy penetration. The outer coat is the hardest and most resistant to sharp teeth. The middle is softer and dissipates energy by deforming. The last layer has a plywoodlike structure, which prevents cracks from spreading. The precise sequence of these layers critically preserves armor strength--for instance, replacing the outer and middle layers in simulations increased risk of the scale coming apart. These findings, posted online July 27 by Nature Materials, could illuminate how fish evolved and lead to more effective ways of designing armor. [Mo

The new rules would cut the sulfur content of the fuels ships use in controlled areas along coasts by 63 percent as of July of 2010.

You cannot plug your laptop into an electrical outlet or recharge your cell phone, iPod or cordless tools without each item’s custom DC adapter. Wouldn’t it be handy if one little black brick covered them all? “My family has 42 DC devices in our house,” says Frank P. Paniagua, Jr., founder and CEO of Green Plug in San Ramon, Calif. “We have adapters and wires everywhere. Instead we could have a single brick in each room.”The problem? The “brick” would have to ask every gadget what voltage and current to send. So manufacturers would have to agree on a standard communications protocol and a universal connector to join the hardware. Green Plug has devised both and will license them to manufacturers free. It would make money selling a small microchip embedded in bricks and devices that would conduct the power flow. [More]