Zoo news

Puppy love

Credit: REUTERS/SEOUL NATL UNIV.

Researchers at Seoul National University in South Korea will this year mate Snuppy, the world's first cloned dog (right), with Bona, the world's second (and first female) clone, to check their reproductive abilities.

Number Crunch

US$421,200 was the amount paid at auction last week for the skeleton of a mammoth nicknamed 'The President' — a record for such an artefact.

11 other items in the same sale of palaeontological curiosities, which was held at Christie's in Paris, France, were also sold for world-record prices.

US$1.53 million is the total amount of cash splashed out at the auction, mostly by private collectors.

On the record

“This proves it's possible for humans to change the weather on the world's highest plateau.”

Yu Zhongshui, an official at China's Tibet meteorological station, on the successful effort to create snowfall over the city of Nagqu by seeding clouds with silver iodide particles.

Overhyped

Kryptonite

The name of Superman's nemesis has been given to the newly discovered mineral sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide, because it happens to have a very similar name to the formulation for kryptonite quoted in the film Superman Returns. The real-life version, however, is not green, does not come from outer space and can't kill superheroes.

Sources: AFP, Associated Press, Daily Telegraph, Natural History Museum