Seal Balls And Asteroids

Up to 325,000 young seal pups could be killed in the coming weeks.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Canada was victim of an "international propaganda campaign", and insisted the cull would be carried out humanely. "We believe the country is acting responsibly and we'll make sure all rules are enforced."
Harp seals can be legally hunted once their white coats darken, at about two weeks old.

Scientists believe the human testicle may provide a less controversial source of cells for stem cell research.
Stem cells hold great promise for new treatments for many conditions as they have the ability to become many different types of adult tissue.
But at present the most flexible type is found in human embryos, and their use is mired in controversy.
A German team describe in the journal Nature how they isolated cells from mice testes that seem equally useful.
The researchers believe similar cells could also be extracted from humans.

Ocean water, long believed to have come from icy comets beyond Neptune, may have originated in asteroids found in warmer regions much closer to Earth, according to astronomers in Hawaii.
Two astronomers at the University of Hawaii found traces of water in an asteroid-like object floating in the solar system near Jupiter. It was a rare discovery in an area so close to the sun and, until know, believed to be orbited only by dry asteroids.
Prof David Jewitt and graduate student Henry Hsieh, who reported the findings, believe that a collision dug a hole into the three asteroids, exposing their liquid interior.“We think that the water has been buried below the surface of asteroids,” Hsieh said. “It’s basically been preserved this whole time by being buried, shielded from the sun.”