The X Prize foundation, best known for launching the private spaceflight industry, launches a $1.4 million oil clean-up challenge.

Genetically modified bacteria that munch on sugar to produce refinable oil could bring down the cost of switching to cleaner liquid fuelsimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/c602a6f/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=E.+coli+engineered+to+make+convenient+%27drop-in%27+biofuellink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fdn19238-e-coli-engineered-to-make-convenient-dropin-biofuel.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=E.+coli+engineered+to+make+convenient+%27drop-in%27+biofuellink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fdn19238-e-coli-engineered-to-make-convenient-dropin-biofuel.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/77788040140/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/207628911/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/77788040140/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/207628911/a2.img" border="0"//a

A Unesco panel votes to remove the Galapagos Islands from a "red list" of endangered heritage sites, drawing protests from a leading conservation group.

All today's stories on NewScientist.com, including: doubts over shaken baby syndrome, a new take on Alzheimer's and the decline of Phytoplanktonimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/c600bd4/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Today+on+New+Scientist%3A+29+July+2010link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fshortsharpscience%2F2010%2F07%2Ftoday-on-new-scientist-29-july.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Today+on+New+Scientist%3A+29+July+2010link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fshortsharpscience%2F2010%2F07%2Ftoday-on-new-scientist-29-july.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/77788905106/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/207621076/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/77788905106/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/207621076/a2.img" border="0"//a

The World Heritage Committee has taken the Galapagos off its Danger List, says Michael Marshall. In other news, mice have nothing to fear from catsimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/c600262/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Galapagos+off+the+Danger+List+%26%238211%3B+but+why%3Flink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fshortsharpscience%2F2010%2F07%2Fgalapagos-off-the-danger-list.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Galapagos+off+the+Danger+List+%26%238211%3B+but+why%3Flink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fshortsharpscience%2F2010%2F07%2Fgalapagos-off-the-danger-list.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/77788903979/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/207618658/kg/65/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/77788903979/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/207618658/kg/65/a2.img" border="0"//a

Russian sub searches Lake Baikal for energy reserves

A trick used in 3D-movie theatres could enable totally secure quantum communication with satellitesimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/c5eca79/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Satellite+quantum+communication+circles+closerlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fdn19234-satellite-quantum-communication-circles-closer.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Satellite+quantum+communication+circles+closerlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fdn19234-satellite-quantum-communication-circles-closer.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/77788591862/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/207538809/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/77788591862/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/207538809/a2.img" border="0"//a

Tiny marine plants that help support life in the oceans are declining in numbers #8211; and that's worth worrying about, says Michael Marshallimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/c5e99be/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Phytoplankton+in+decline%3A+bye+bye+food+chain%3Flink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fshortsharpscience%2F2010%2F07%2Fphytoplankton-in-decline-bye-b.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Phytoplankton+in+decline%3A+bye+bye+food+chain%3Flink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fshortsharpscience%2F2010%2F07%2Fphytoplankton-in-decline-bye-b.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/77788886465/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/207526334/kg/45/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/77788886465/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/207526334/kg/45/a2.img" border="0"//a

A new robot called TRAK has been programmed to map its surroundings #8211; but it could also tell us more about the human brainimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/c5e7f14/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Inside+TRAK%3A+a+new+robot+shows+us+how+we+thinklink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fculturelab%2F2010%2F07%2Fyou-lookin-at-me.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Inside+TRAK%3A+a+new+robot+shows+us+how+we+thinklink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fculturelab%2F2010%2F07%2Fyou-lookin-at-me.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/77788586691/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/207519508/kg/63/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/77788586691/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/207519508/kg/63/a2.img" border="0"//a

Rescue teams in north-east China are working to retrieve 3,000 barrels of chemicals washed into a major river, state media say.

If a potential dark matter particle – the axion – exists, it could reveal itself in explosions around black holesimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/c5de9ba/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Spinning+black+holes+could+expose+exotic+particleslink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fmg20727714.000-spinning-black-holes-could-expose-exotic-particles.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Spinning+black+holes+could+expose+exotic+particleslink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fmg20727714.000-spinning-black-holes-could-expose-exotic-particles.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/77788877692/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/207481274/kg/63/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/77788877692/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/207481274/kg/63/a2.img" border="0"//a

A pathologist in the UK who argues that symptoms of "shaken baby syndrome" can have an innocent cause has been prevented from testifying in courtimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/c5d858b/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Doctor+gagged+for+doubting+shaken+baby+syndromelink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fmg20727713.600-doctor-gagged-for-doubting-shaken-baby-syndrome.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Doctor+gagged+for+doubting+shaken+baby+syndromelink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fmg20727713.600-doctor-gagged-for-doubting-shaken-baby-syndrome.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/77788872420/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/207455627/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/77788872420/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/207455627/a2.img" border="0"//a

Attempts to treat the world's most common form of dementia may have been attacking its symptoms, not its root causeimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/c5cebbe/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Alzheimer%27s+unlocked%3A+New+keys+to+a+curelink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fmg20727701.400-alzheimers-unlocked-new-keys-to-a-cure.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Alzheimer%27s+unlocked%3A+New+keys+to+a+curelink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fmg20727701.400-alzheimers-unlocked-new-keys-to-a-cure.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/77788865468/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/207416254/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/77788865468/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/207416254/a2.img" border="0"//a

The European Union and six member states have reached a deal on the experimental nuclear fusion reactor they are backing.

The cheetah, eradicated in India by hunting nearly a century ago, will run again in the country, as three sites are earmarked for its reintroduction.

Two satellites that were doomed to die if they remained in orbit around Earth are heading to the moon for a life extensionimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/c5a2382/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Aurora+mission+makes+detour+to+moonlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fshortsharpscience%2F2010%2F07%2Faurora-mission-makes-detour-to.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Aurora+mission+makes+detour+to+moonlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fshortsharpscience%2F2010%2F07%2Faurora-mission-makes-detour-to.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/77788830268/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/207233922/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/77788830268/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/207233922/a2.img" border="0"//a

A team of divers - known as Neptune's Army of Rubbish Cleaners - are stepping up efforts to keep Britain's coastline clean and litter free.

Environmental group WWF apologises to Saudi Arabia after one of its workers vandalised the country's nameplate at a climate conference.

An online talk by a member of NASA's Kepler mission fuels speculation that the telescope has found Earth-like planetsimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/c591057/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Did+planet+hunter+leak+data+about+other+Earths%3Flink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fshortsharpscience%2F2010%2F07%2F100-million-habitable-planets.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Did+planet+hunter+leak+data+about+other+Earths%3Flink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fshortsharpscience%2F2010%2F07%2F100-million-habitable-planets.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/77788822333/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/207163479/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/77788822333/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/207163479/a2.img" border="0"//a

Canadian archaeologists locate the wreck of HMS Investigator, a British ship abandoned in the Arctic in the 19th Century.