On the Record

“Some never make a pregnancy, some die before term, some die of disease, some live but are large. And some are just fine — those are the real mysteries.”

Reproductive biologist Mark Westhusin describes the lottery of cloning. He brought the first cloned cat and deer into the world. The first cloned dog is reported on page 641.

“This hair sample could not have come from the hairy bipedal animal that was reportedly sighted in Teslin last week.”

Geneticist David Coltman dashes hopes of proving Bigfoot's existence, after mitochondrial DNA from hair found near a suspected sighting produced a 100% match with bison sequences.

Scorecard

Room to think

Between 2001 and 2003, the floor space dedicated to scientific research at US colleges and universities rose 11% to 16 million square metres, making it a real growth area.

Remains of the day

Fossil hunters could soon get a chance to seek signs of life on Mars. NUGGET, an instrument proposed by NASA, would use neutron beams to peer inside rocks and draw three-dimensional images of any remains within.

Number Crunch

NASA TV is taking over the world...

50,000 The peak number of simultaneous webcast streams sent out by NASA for the Mars Rover landings in January 2004.

118,000 The peak number of streams sent out for the Deep Impact mission on 4 July 2005.

433,000 The peak number of streams sent out for the space shuttle launch on 26 July 2005.

Source: NASA