NASA’s Curiosity Rover Successfully Lands on Mars - 8/6 KQED Science News Roundup

Curiosity Rover Lands Safely on MarsPASADENA, Calif. - The Curiosity has landed. With pride, relief and exhilaration, NASA engineers and officials erupted in cheers and hugs early Monday morning with confirmation that the Curiosity, a car-sized, plutonium-powered robotic rover, had landed safely on the surface of Mars. "Touchdown confirmed," Allen Chen, the engineer in the control room providing commentary, said at 1:32 a.m.

DNA study pushes back polar bears originDNA study pushes back polar bears origin [...] those snippets represented only selected bits; the new study, by Webb Miller and Stephan C. Schuster of Penn State, Charlotte Lindqvist of the University at Buffalo, and an international team of 23 other scientists, looked at the full genomes of polar bears, brown bears and black bears.

New study links current events to climate changeWASHINGTON (AP) â The relentless, weather-gone-crazy type of heat that has blistered the United States and other parts of the world in recent years is so rare that it can't be anything but man-made global warming, says a new statistical analysis from a top government scientist.

Yosemite National Park, with donors' help, expands at-risk youth programs - San Jose Mercury NewsYosemite and its nonprofit partners hope to introduce a new generation of Americans to national parks, to change their lives and boost the future prospects of the park system

Caltrans' records show problems with tests on Bay Bridge, other bridges - The Sacramento BeeA special team within Caltrans has uncovered problems with safety testing far broader than previously known. After reviewing records for roadways and bridges, the engineering team has uncovered doctored data and other suspicious tests, including work done on the new eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

Yosemite's lost valley will be subject of vote - The Sacramento BeeThis fall San Franciscans will vote on a local measure with national implications: It could return to the American people a flooded gorge described as the twin of breathtaking Yosemite Valley.

Hazardous waste dump is environmental battleground - The Sacramento BeeKETTLEMAN HILLS - The West's largest hazardous-waste landfill is running out of room after four years of expansion attempts have been stymied by tragedy in nearby Kettleman City. State authorities put the expansion on hold after community activists in 2009 reported a rash of birth defects in Kettleman City, implicating the landfill's toxic burial ground 3.5 miles away.