Future spacecraft could change their orbits simply by unfurling electrically conducting tethers ndash; Japan has now tested one in a suborbital missionimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d5d97a3/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Space+ribbon+deployed+to+surf+Earth%27s+magnetic+fieldlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fdn19393-space-ribbon-deployed-to-surf-earths-magnetic-field.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=Space+ribbon+deployed+to+surf+Earth%27s+magnetic+fieldlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fdn19393-space-ribbon-deployed-to-surf-earths-magnetic-field.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/div

Regular readers will be in no doubt that Questor is a strong believer of the Indian growth story. That's why yesterday's purchase by specialist pump engineer Weir Group is pleasing.

LONDON (Reuters) - Pension obligations of British companies have grown to "unprecedented" levels due to falling yields on government bonds, consultancy Aon warned on Thursday.div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~ff/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?a=gtPUsC4noVA:CFMO2mDcvGQ:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~ff/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?a=gtPUsC4noVA:CFMO2mDcvGQ:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?i=gtPUsC4noVA:CFMO2mDcvGQ:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~ff/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?a=gtPUsC4noVA:CFMO2mDcvGQ:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?i=gtPUsC4noVA:CFMO2mDcvGQ:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Reuters/UKBusinessNews/~4/gtPUsC4noVA" height="1" width="1"/

Investors have been fretting about a lack of growth at bus operator Go-Ahead Group for some time. That's why the share price has been falling since June.

All today's stories on NewScientist.com including: the flaws in criminal profiling, a birds-eye view of hurricane Earl and weird water inside planetsimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d5d6ce6/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+2+September+2010link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fshortsharpscience%2F2010%2F09%2Ftoday-on-new-scientist-2-septe.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+2+September+2010link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fshortsharpscience%2F2010%2F09%2Ftoday-on-new-scientist-2-septe.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/78869409131/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/224226534/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869409131/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/224226534/a2.img" border="0"//a

The recovery in Britain's job market is coming from businesses replacing employees, rather than creating new jobs, according to the head of recruitment company Hays.

LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland announced thousands of new job cuts on Thursday as the part-nationalised bank continues with its drive to trim costs and improve its profitability.div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~ff/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?a=0yKrk5XiYtM:iTmk4rutgg8:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~ff/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?a=0yKrk5XiYtM:iTmk4rutgg8:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?i=0yKrk5XiYtM:iTmk4rutgg8:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~ff/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?a=0yKrk5XiYtM:iTmk4rutgg8:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?i=0yKrk5XiYtM:iTmk4rutgg8:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Reuters/UKBusinessNews/~4/0yKrk5XiYtM" height="1" width="1"/

LONDON (Reuters) - House prices fell much faster than expected last month and construction activity slowed, industry surveys showed on Thursday, reinforcing concerns that economic growth will fall off sharply.div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~ff/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?a=sCstmkG_-cY:eemdqYcGodc:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~ff/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?a=sCstmkG_-cY:eemdqYcGodc:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?i=sCstmkG_-cY:eemdqYcGodc:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~ff/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?a=sCstmkG_-cY:eemdqYcGodc:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?i=sCstmkG_-cY:eemdqYcGodc:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Reuters/UKBusinessNews/~4/sCstmkG_-cY" height="1" width="1"/

In the coming weeks, the new Coalition Government faces some stark choices on pensions, relating to tax relief for high earners, public sector pensions and the implementation of a new pensions system for the UK.

LONDON (Reuters) - The top share index closed a touch higher on Thursday after a lacklustre day of trading following a powerful advance the day before, with investors keeping their powder dry ahead of U.S. jobs data on Friday.div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~ff/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?a=R9lbGuAFYwM:dN2-aKsKuQc:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~ff/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?a=R9lbGuAFYwM:dN2-aKsKuQc:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?i=R9lbGuAFYwM:dN2-aKsKuQc:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~ff/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?a=R9lbGuAFYwM:dN2-aKsKuQc:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Reuters/UKBusinessNews?i=R9lbGuAFYwM:dN2-aKsKuQc:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Reuters/UKBusinessNews/~4/R9lbGuAFYwM" height="1" width="1"/

A species of acacia tree found in Eastern Africa seems to be protected from elephant damage - by the ants that live on it.

Researchers map the nervous system of worms to try and understand how the human cerebral cortex evolved.

An astronaut on the International Space Station has captured a serene-looking view of hurricane Earl #8211; but things aren't so calm down belowimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d5cdf46/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=A+birds-eye+view+of+hurricane+Earllink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fshortsharpscience%2F2010%2F09%2Fa-birds-eye-view-of-hurricane.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=A+birds-eye+view+of+hurricane+Earllink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fshortsharpscience%2F2010%2F09%2Fa-birds-eye-view-of-hurricane.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/78869406193/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/224190278/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869406193/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/224190278/a2.img" border="0"//a

By storing power for when it's needed most, speakers that plug into a USB port can produce high-quality sound without the need for mains powerimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d5cd3d4/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Smart+USB+speakers+pump+up+the+volume+from+laptopslink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fmg20727765.800-smart-usb-speakers-pump-up-the-volume-from-laptops.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=Smart+USB+speakers+pump+up+the+volume+from+laptopslink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fmg20727765.800-smart-usb-speakers-pump-up-the-volume-from-laptops.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/78869401278/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/224187348/kg/26-63-68-168/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869401278/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/224187348/kg/26-63-68-168/a2.img" border="0"//a

Stephen Hawking's new book is the biggest science news story of the day. Has he suddenly given up a religious belief, asks bRoger Highfield/bimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d5cd3d5/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Hawking+hasn%27t+changed+his+mind+about+Godlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fdn19391-hawking-hasnt-changed-his-mind-about-god.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=Hawking+hasn%27t+changed+his+mind+about+Godlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fdn19391-hawking-hasnt-changed-his-mind-about-god.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/78869401276/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/224187349/kg/65/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869401276/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/224187349/kg/65/a2.img" border="0"//a

A potentially revolutionary circuit component, once a laboratory curiosity, is to be mass-produced for the first time.

Hewlett-Packard has again trounced Dell in the race for data storage company 3PAR as it increased its offer to $33 a share.

Predictions of a Japan recovery always end in disappointment. Should investors cut and run?

A rare Chinese tree has flowered for the first time in 23 years at Kew's country estate in West Sussex.

Congress could find a way around the shock court ruling that has frozen US government support for work on human embryonic stem cellsimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d5c2278/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Can+US+Congress+overturn+stem-cell+funding+freeze%3Flink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fmg20727763.600-can-us-congress-overturn-stemcell-funding-freeze.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=Can+US+Congress+overturn+stem-cell+funding+freeze%3Flink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fmg20727763.600-can-us-congress-overturn-stemcell-funding-freeze.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/78869392964/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/224141944/kg/43/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869392964/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/224141944/kg/43/a2.img" border="0"//a