The landscape is harsh, the air dry and the altitude challenging. That's not how most people think of the holiday island of Tenerife, but for space scientists and engineers, the barren terrain here makes the ideal training ground for Europe's latest mission to the Red Planet. Amid the rocks and dust of the slopes of the volcano El Teide, a team from the aerospace company EADS-Astrium has spent the past week testing a new rover - a robot vehicle expected to be launched to Mars in 2011. It will be the central feature of the European Space Agency's £400m project known as ExoMars. Full Article

A Russian Soyuz rocket is sending a Brazilian man into space for the first time - and he's taking his football shirt. Marcos Pontes is hoping that by taking his beloved country's shirt and flag into orbit, his team will be sprinkled with lucky spacedust for the World Cup. The Brazilian is joining Russian Pavel Vinogradov and American Jeffrey Williams for the mission to the international space station. Vinogradov and Williams will stay on board the station for about six months.Full Article

Budget cuts and poor management may be jeopardizing the future of our eyes in orbit -- America's fleet of environmental satellites, vital tools for forecasting hurricanes, protecting water supplies and predicting global warming. "The system of environmental satellites is at risk of collapse," said Richard A. Anthes, president of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. "Every year that goes by without the system being addressed is a problem." Anthes chairs a National Academy of Sciences committee that advises the federal government on developing and operating environmental satellites. Full Article

The world's largest optical telescope facility can now use an "artificial star" to improve its vision. The star is created with a laser, which is fired 90km into the sky to make sodium atoms in the thermosphere glow. This spot of light is then used as a reference to process and correct the blurring effects of our turbulent atmosphere on astronomical images. Full Article

Forensic scientists could use DNA retrieved from a crime scene to predict the surname of the suspect, according to a new British study. It is not perfect, but could be an important investigative tool when combined with other intelligence. The method exploits genetic likenesses between men who share the same surname, and may help prioritise inquiries. Full Article

A cancer drug could help children with the premature ageing disorder Progeria, a study has suggested. Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles, found it appeared to reduce the effects of the disease in mice. Progeria is a rare genetic disease, affecting one in four million children. Experts in the condition said the study, in Science, offered hope the drug could be safely given to children affected by progeria. Full Article

Babies have a rudimentary grasp of maths long before they can walk or talk, according to new research. By the age of seven months infants have an abstract sense of numbers and are able to match the number of voices they hear with the number of faces they see. The research could be useful in devising methods for teaching basic maths skills to the very young, say researchers in the US. The study is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Full Article

The deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus has reached three new European countries, officials have confirmed. The virus has been found in wild swans in Sicily, and other cases are suspected elsewhere in Italy, the country's health minister says. A specialist UK laboratory has identified the virus in dead swans found in northern Greece and Bulgaria. Full Article

An international team of scientists says it has found a "lost world" in the Indonesian jungle that is home to dozens of new animal and plant species. "It's as close to the Garden of Eden as you're going to find on Earth," said Bruce Beehler, co-leader of the group. The team recorded new butterflies, frogs, and a series of remarkable plants that included five new palms and a giant rhododendron flower. Full Article

Astronomers have for the first time put some real numbers on the physical characteristics of dark matter. This strange material that dominates the Universe but which is invisible to current telescope technology is one of the great enigmas of modern science. That it exists is one of the few things on which researchers have been certain.But now an Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, team has at last been able to place limits on how it is packed in space and measure its "temperature". Full Article

When is the smallest really the smallest?
It seems that when it comes to fish, the answer is just not clear-cut. Last week saw the announcement that the world's tiniest fish and vertebrate had been found, measuring a mere 7.9mm. The little creature, a female of the Paedocypris genus, was discovered in the peat swamps of Sumatra, Indonesia. But miniscule though this may seem, two other fish reported in the past couple of years claim to be smaller still. Full Article

Rising concentrations of greenhouse gases may have more serious impacts than previously believed, a major scientific report has said. The report, published by the UK government, says there is only a small chance of greenhouse gas emissions being kept below "dangerous" levels. It fears the Greenland ice sheet is likely to melt, leading sea levels to rise by 7m (23ft) over 1,000 years. Full Article

An international team of astronomers has found the smallest Earth-like planet yet outside our Solar System. The new planet has five times the Earth's mass and can be found about 25,000 light-years away in the Milky Way, orbiting a red dwarf star. The discovery, reported in the journal Nature, was made using a method called microlensing, which can detect far-off planets with an Earth-like mass. Full Article

The government has asked the Health and Safety Executive to assess all UK nuclear reactors, the BBC has learnt.
Experts will analyse the cost and suitability of the existing network, as well as how safe it is. Industry leaders want to know whether more nuclear stations will be built amid fears of future energy shortages. Full Article

Make way rovers Spirit and Opportunity -- the next wheels on Mars will belong to the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) -- a huge step in how that planet is further poked, probed, and more fully plumbed for new information.L is a huge chunk of machinery. At liftoff in September 2009, it will carry the largest, most advanced set of instruments for on-the-spot science duties ever dispatched to the Martian surface. Full Article

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The whale that rescuers were carrying out to sea from the River Thames died Saturday, according to the London Port Authority.
Rescuers used a crane to lift the whale out of the river in central London and onto a barge. But the whale died on the barge hours later, before it could be returned to deeper water.. Full Article

Malaria parasites develop in the lymph nodes of the immune system, researchers have discovered.
Scientists say the finding was unexpected, and underlines just how complex malaria infection can be. The immature parasites are known to travel to an infected person's liver, which, until now, scientists thought was the only place they could develop. Full Article

The US space agency (Nasa) is getting ready to launch New Horizons, the first space mission to visit Pluto. New Horizons is set to lift off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 1824 GMT on Tuesday aboard an Atlas 5 rocket. Despite being the fastest probe ever built, it will still take more than nine years to reach its distant target. Anti-nuclear activists have staged small protests about the spacecraft's 33kg payload of plutonium fuel. Full Article