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The first mirror segment that will fly on the James Webb Space Telescope, built by Northrop Grumman Corporation, has completed its first series of cryogenic temperature tests in the X-ray and Cryogenic Facility at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. ... Engineers will measure how the mirror changes shape going from room temperature to cryogenic (frigid) temperatures, as the metal expands and contracts. They can model these changes to some extent, but not perfectly. The mirrors will be polished to about 100 nanometers (a human hair is approximately 60,000 to 120,000 nanometers) accuracy at room temperature, based on...

In Britain, there is a collective swoon over the election of Barack Obama. Media superlatives have exhausted the lexicon of cliches. Journalists wept with joy over his acceptance speech. Even members of the Conservative shadow cabinet are firmly in the fan club. There’s been nothing like it since... well, I was going to say Dianamania, but actually the person who most comes to mind at this moment is Britain’s former prime minister, Tony Blair.

When the South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard carried out the first heart transplant in December 1967, the world held its breath. His patient, 53-year-old Lewis Washkansky, lived for only another 18 days. The drugs he needed to stop his body rejecting the new organ compromised his immune system to such an extent he couldn’t fight off other illnesses, and he died of pneumonia. But the precedent had been set: the most powerful and emotionally iconic of human organs could be taken from the body of a dead person to give the chance of an extended life to another. It was...

Shattering all its previous records, the U.S. wind energy industry installed 5,244 megawatts (MW) in 2007, expanding the nation’s total wind power generating capacity by 45% in a single calendar year and injecting an investment of over $9 billion into the economy, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) announced today. The new wind projects account for about 30% of the entire new power-producing capacity added nationally in 2007 and will power the equivalent of 1.5 million American households annually while strengthening U.S. energy supply with clean, homegrown electric power. “This is the third consecutive year of record-setting growth, establishing wind...

AWEA QUARTERLY MARKET REPORT:  WIND DELIVERS VITAL NEW POWER SUPPLY WITH OVER 2,300 MEGAWATTS INSTALLED THIS YEAR TO DATEWind energy trade group raises estimate for 2007 installations, calls on U.S government to deliver strong renewable energy legislationContinuing a major growth trend, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) today announced a substantial increase in the projected installation of new wind energy facilities in 2007.  Previous projections for a record-setting 3,000 megawatts (MW) of new wind power capacity in 2007 have now been raised:  AWEA reports that the U.S. wind energy industry is currently on track to complete a total 4,000...

U.S. WIND INDUSTRY TO INSTALL OVER 3,000 MEGAWATTS OF WIND POWER IN 2007: FIRST QUARTER MARKET REPORT Texas could account for about two thirds of the new capacity, demonstrating that Renewables Portfolio Standards (RPS) can play key role in accelerating development The U.S. wind energy industry is on track to install over 3,000 megawatts (MW) of wind power generating capacity nationwide in 2007, with Texas likely to account for about two thirds of the new installations, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) said today in its first quarter market report. Over 100 MW have newly come online in the...

Talisman Energy (UK) Limited announced that the Beatrice Wind Farm Demonstrator Project has begun generating energy. The 85-meter high, 5-megawatt (MW) turbine, the largest in offshore deepwater, will be used to generate electricity for the nearby Beatrice platform, 25 kilometers off the east coast of Scotland. A second turbine will be installed nearby in the summer to complete the project. The joint venture between Talisman and Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) is a central part of DOWNViND (Distant Offshore Wind Farms No Visual Impact iN Deepwater). "We are making history with the first electricity being generated by this offshore deepwater...

HONG KONG - Mass movements are part of Chinese tradition. Chinese people tend to act as a group and, whenever conditions are ripe, they rush to join with someone or some group taking the lead. Hence a "mass movement" can be easily formed. In the 1960s and 1970s, there were the "all people becoming citizen-soldiers" movement and the Cultural Revolution launched by Mao Zedong. In the era of economic reform and opening up, "mass movements" appear to have become more spontaneous. In the 1980s, there was a time when "all people rushed to do commercial businesses". And now we are...

Ireland produced one of the greatest victories in cricket's rich history by beating Pakistan on St Patrick's Day amid unbelievable tension in Jamaica. Led by their brilliant wicket-keeper batsman Niall O'Brien, they reached a rain-adjusted target of 128 with three wickets remaining in near darkness. Ireland's fans, who had been there to witness the tie against Zimbabwe, could barely contain themselves afterwards. The result means Pakistan, ranked fourth in the world, are already out. Wicket-keeper O'Brien, axed by Kent in 2006 because they rate Geraint Jones above him, hit a brilliant 72, easily the best effort by any of the...

Many of the President's supporters live in Jose Felix Ribas barrio As US President George Bush tours South America, his ideological enemy, Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, is facing growing nervousness at home over his economic strategy. I am sitting in a car in a petrol station on the outskirts of Caracas watching evidence of the pleasures and the pitfalls of being a wealthy Venezuelan. The upside: petrol here is cheaper than the most basic bottled water. In this oil-rich nation car drivers get a pretty good deal. The downside: sitting on a wall across from our car is a...

When politicians and journalists declare that the science of global warming is settled, they show a regrettable ignorance about how science works. We were treated to another dose of it recently when the experts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued the Summary for Policymakers that puts the political spin on an unfinished scientific dossier on climate change due for publication in a few months’ time. They declared that most of the rise in temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to man-made greenhouse gases. The small print explains “very likely” as meaning that the experts who...

Industry delivered 32% of annual market growth despite supply chain difficulties. The booming wind energy markets around the world exceeded expectations in 2006, with the sector experiencing yet another record year. On the day of the publication of the 4th Assessment Report on Climate Change by the IPCC, the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) released its annual figures for 2006. These figures, which include wind energy developments in more than 70 countries around the world, show that the year saw the installation of 15,197 megawatts (MW), taking the total installed wind energy capacity to 74,223 MW, up from 59,091 MW...

WIND POWER CAPACITY IN U.S. INCREASED 27% IN 2006 AND IS EXPECTED TO GROW AN ADDITIONAL 26% IN 2007 Annual industry outlook details increased growth spurred by strong demand, investment of private capital, as well as support of federal and state governments Wind power generating capacity increased by 27% in 2006 and is expected to increase an additional 26% in 2007, proving wind is now a mainstream option for new power generation, according to a market forecast released today by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). Wind’s exponential growth reflects the nation’s increasing demand for clean, safe and domestic energy,...

There was intense competition today to rescue items, many of them worth considerable amounts of money, from containers washed ashore from a stricken freighter. There were reports of threats and squabbling as people sought to secure the most valuable items, including £12,000 brand new BMW motorcycles. As news of the wreckage spread, people travelled from as far away as 60 miles to Branscombe beach in east Devon to see investigate. Goods washed ashore included a container which split apart to reveal 20 of the K1200GT motorcycles. Groups of men man-handled the heavy machines 500 metres up the beach to the...

French firm Areva - the largest maker of nuclear reactors - has tabled a $1bn (£506m; 772m euro) bid for leading clean energy firm Repower of Germany. Areva said it would pay 105 euros a share for the wind turbine firm, a move that would allow it to tap into the growing wind energy sector. Climate change has fuelled a greater commercial interest in clean energy, as firms try to reduce carbon emissions. News of the offer pushed Repower shares up by 23.5% to 110.23 euros. The 105 euros a share offer represents a 17% premium on the firm's closing...

Writing in the current issue of Foreign Affairs, Julia Sweig, the Director of Latin America Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, argues that the conventional wisdom that "Without Fidel's iron fist ...the long-oppressed population would overthrow Fidel's revolutionary cronies and ...transform Cuba into a market democracy." But she argues: "...that moment has come and gone ...the post-Fidel transition is already well under way. Power has been successfully transferred to a new set of leaders, whose priority is to preserve the system while permitting only very gradual reform." If Ms. Sweig is correct - and I try to stay away...

A GREAT coal rush is under way across China on a scale not seen anywhere since the 19th century. Its consequences have been detected half a world away in toxic clouds so big that they can seen from space, drifting across the Pacific to California laden with microscopic particles of chemicals that cause cancer and diseases of the heart and lung. Nonetheless, the Chinese plan to build no fewer than 500 new coal-fired power stations, adding to some 2,000, most of them unmodernised, that spew smoke, carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere. It is the political fallout of...

WITH the decade more than half over and any stock indexes still well below their highs of 2000, it seems a foregone conclusion that this first decade of the 21st century will go down in the history books as a poor one for equity investors. But that likelihood, depressing as it is in many respects, does not necessarily mean the decade’s remaining years will disappoint. On the contrary, the patterns of market history, set against today’s still positive investment fundamentals, suggest that stocks should perform well going for­ward. The improved returns may not alter the general character of the decade...

Hundreds of Iraqis have offered to act as hangman in the execution of Saddam Hussein, according to senior officials in the Baghdad Government. Some requests have been e-mailed to the office of Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, from around the world. Mr al-Maliki has also been directly petitioned by government officials who want to place the noose around Saddam’s neck. Many ordinary Justice Ministry employees are too terrified to carry out an execution, fearing reprisals from the dead man’s family. Those who do volunteer to act as the executioner may well have lost a relative to violence in the...

The French people have turned against monetary union for the first time since the launch of the euro five years ago, underscoring the fragility of an experiment that draws its lifeblood from French and German popular acceptance. A TNS Sofres poll released today by Le Pèlerin magazine found that 52pc of the French public now regard the euro as a "bad thing", blaming it for price jumps and job losses. While the professional elites still favour EMU by a wide margin, some 71pc of blue-collar workers now say the euro has hurt them personally. A quarter of all French still...