Yet another application is in medicine, where synthetic DNA is allowing bacteria and yeast to produce the malaria drug artemisinin far more efficiently than it is made in plants, its natural source. Bugs such as these will seem quaint, scientists say, once fully synthetic organisms are brought on line to work 24/7 on a range of tasks, from industrial production to chemical cleanups. But the prospect of a flourishing synbio economy has many wondering who will own the valuable rights to that life.

In the past year, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has been flooded with aggressive synthetic-biology claims. Some of Venter's applications, in particular, "are breathtaking in their scope," said Knight. And with Venter's company openly hoping to develop "an operating system for biologically-based software," some fear it is seeking synthetic hegemony. "We've asked our patent lawyers to be reasonable and not to be overreaching," Venter said. But competitors such as DuPont, he said, "have just blanketed the field with patent applications."

Safety concerns also loom large. Already a few scientists have made viruses from scratch. The pending ability to make bacteria -- which, unlike viruses, can live and reproduce in the environment outside of a living body -- raises new concerns about contamination, contagion and the potential for mischief. "Ultimately synthetic biology means cheaper and widely accessible tools to build bioweapons, virulent pathogens and artificial organisms that could pose grave threats to people and the planet," concluded a recent report by the Ottawa-based ETC Group, one of dozens of advocacy groups that want a ban on releasing synthetic organisms pending wider societal debate and regulation. "The danger is not just bio-terror but bio-error," the report says. Many scientists say the threat has been overblown. Venter notes that his synthetic genomes are spiked with special genes that make the microbes dependent on a rare nutrient not available in nature. And Pierce, of DuPont, says the company's bugs are too spoiled to survive outdoors.

"They are designed to grow in a cosseted environment with very high food levels," Pierce said. "You throw this guy out on the ground, he just can't compete. He's toast." "We've heard that before," said Jim Thomas, ETC Group's program manager, noting that genes engineered into crops have often found their way into other plants despite assurances to the contrary. "The fact is, you can build viruses, and soon bacteria, from downloaded instructions on the Internet," Thomas said. "Where's the governance and oversight?"

Her testimony before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee had much less information on health risks than a much longer draft version Gerberding submitted to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review in advance of her appearance. "It was eviscerated," said a CDC official, familiar with both versions, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the review process.

The official said that while it is customary for testimony to be changed in a White House review, these changes were particularly "heavy-handed." The White House office had no comment on Gerberding's testimony. Gerberding could not be reached late Tuesday for comment.

The deletions directed by the White House included details on how many people might be adversely affected because of increased warming and the scientific basis for some of the CDC's analysis on what kinds of diseases might be spread in a warmer climate and rising sea levels, according to another official who had seen the original version. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), the committee chairwoman, said the Bush administration "should immediately release Dr. Gerberding's full, uncut statement, because the public has a right to know all the facts about the serious threats posed by global warming."

The terminal and hangar facility will also provide room for aircraft and spacecraft, and Virgin Galactic's operations facilities, including pre-flight and post-flight facilities, administrative offices, and lounges. The spacious maintenance hangar can hold two White Knight Two carrier aircraft and five SpaceShipTwo spaceliners - vessels now under construction at Scaled Composites in Mojave, California.

The terminal and hangar facility are projected to cost about $31 million, and will provide a "Destination Experience" for visitors to Spaceport America. Virgin Galactic intends to sign a 20-year lease for approximately 84,000 square feet (7,803 square meters) in the building. "The URS/Foster team presented us with a concept that blends sensitivity to the environment, cutting-edge technology and a stunning image and shape when viewed from high above," noted Kelly O'Donnell, chair of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority in a press statement last month.

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Founded by Branson, a British entrepreneur and adventurer, Virgin Galactic was created to undertake the challenge of making private space travel available to everyone. "The deal between New Mexico and URS working with Sir Norman Foster will produce a spectacular, but very environmentally efficient landmark for the new era of space travel," explained Will Whitehorn, President of Virgin Galactic.

"The design for Spaceport America is not only breathtaking but also practical which is also what I believe SpaceShipTwo and its launch aircraft WhiteKnight Two will be regarded as when their respective designs are unveiled next January," Whitehorn told SPACE.com. Whitehorn added that, with the commencement of construction at Spaceport America and the completion of construction of White Knight Two and SpaceShipTwo, he and his Virgin Galactic team are now confident that 2008 will be "The Year of the Spaceship."

Possibly worse than making fun of someone's disability is saying that it's imaginary. That is not to mock someone's body, but to challenge a person's guts, integrity, sanity.

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"He is exaggerating the effects of the disease," Limbaugh told listeners. "He's moving all around and shaking and it's purely an act. . . . This is really shameless of Michael J. Fox. Either he didn't take his medication or he's acting." Limbaugh, whose syndicated radio program has a weekly audience of about 10 million, was reacting to Fox's appearance in another one of the spots, for Missouri Democrat Claire McCaskill, running against Republican Sen. James M. Talent.

But the Cardin ad is similar. It is hard to watch, unless, for some reason, you don't believe it. As he speaks, Fox's restless torso weaves and writhes in a private dance. His head bobs from side to side, almost leaving the video frame. "This is the only time I've ever seen Michael J. Fox portray any of the symptoms of the disease he has," Limbaugh said. "He can barely control himself."

Later Monday, still on the air, Limbaugh would apologize, but reaction to his statements from Parkinson's experts and Fox's supporters was swift and angry. "It's a shameless statement," John Rogers said yesterday. Rogers, Fox's political adviser, who also serves on the board of the Parkinson's Action Network, added: "It's insulting. It's appallingly sad, at best." "Anyone who knows the disease well would regard his movement as classic severe Parkinson's disease," said Elaine Richman, a neuroscientist in Baltimore who co-wrote "Parkinson's Disease and the Family." "Any other interpretation is misinformed."

The Air Force recently tapped Triton Systems, out of Chelmsford, Mass, to develop such a "Modular Disc-Wing Urban Cruise Munition." "The 3-D maneuverability of the Frisbee-UAV [unammned aerial vehicle] will provide revolutionary tactical access and lethality against hostiles hiding in upper story locations and/or defiladed behind obstacles," the company promises.

The circular drones will be lanuched "from munitions dispensers or by means of a simple mechanism similar to a shotgun target (skeet) launcher," Triton adds. Once in the air, they'll be tele-operated by soldiers on the ground. Or, if needed, the fightin' frisbees will pilot themselves as they hunt for guerrillas.

Once they catch up to the baddies, the drones will use a series of armor-piercing explosives, shooting jets of molten metal, to eliminate their targets. And these MEFP [Multiple Explosively Formed Penetrator] "warheads will be controllable so as to provide a single large fragment (bunker-buster) or tailorable pattern of smaller fragments (unprotected infantry or light utility vehicles)." The decision of whether to go bunker-buster or infantry-annihilator mode can either be determined by the drones' human operators, "or autonomous target classification routine built into the UAV."

Now, Triton's Frisbee-UAV concept isn't the first time roboticists have looked into disc-shaped drones. From 1992 to 1998, the Navy experimented with a set of unmanned, 250-pound, six-foot-diameter flying saucers. In 2002, Norweigan researchers showed off plans for a circular flying robot "inspired at least partly by the design of Star Trek's USS Enterprise," New Scientist noted.

Around the same time, at the University of Manchester, Jonathan Potts studied how best to control UAVs "based on the Frisbee TM sports disc shape." "The Frisbee disc has proven its potential on the sports field as a platform for short free-flights," Potts wrote back in an '01 paper. Without "predefined flight orientation," a Frisbee drone "offers novel flight characteristics and manoeuvrability. It is potentially suitable for a variety of mission objectives fulfilling surveillance, communications, munitions and/or airborne radar warning systems."

The solar system's biggest planets are at risk of being stripped of their status after the world's top astronomers voted to downgrade Pluto into the dwarf planet category. Experts claim that the definition for planets adopted by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) could also see Neptune downgraded. They say that both planets fail to meet all the criteria set by the IAU.

But other leading astronomers insist the decision to demote Pluto to the status of a "dwarf planet" has allowed them to deal with the difficult problem that there are several other Pluto-like objects orbiting our Sun. Earlier this month the IAU proposed increasing the number of planets to 12 by recognising three new planets, the asteroid Ceres, Pluto's moon Charon and the distant world known as 2003 UB313.

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In the definition set by the astronomers, all planets must now "orbit the Sun, have sufficient mass for its gravity to form a nearly-round shape and have cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit". Pluto was downgraded as its orbit crosses with that of Neptune, meaning that it was classed as a dwarf planet as it had not cleared its orbit. But critics claim that the IAU vote, which was passed by a majority, should be abandoned as only around 400 of the union's 10,000 members took part in the vote in Prague last week.

Martin Hendry, a senior lecturer in astronomy at Glasgow University and member of the IAU, said: "Unless the science underlying this is rigorous, how can we expect to agree on a definition that will be not only understood by ourselves, but other forms of life if and when we encounter them?" Planetologists have now started a campaign to have Pluto reinstated. Astronomers leading the Nasa New Horizons mission that will explore the distant regions of the solar system including Pluto, described last week's decision as "muddled". Harold Weaver, from the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and a New Horizons project scientist, said: "Since many 'Plutinos', including Pluto, cross Neptune's orbit, I'd say Neptune's neighbourhood still needs some clearing."

Astrologers believe that the positions of the moon, sun and stars affect human affairs and that people born under the 12 signs of the Zodiac tend to pick up qualities of the planets associated with those signs. Some astrologers, including leaders of the American Federation of Astrologers and the Astrological Association of Great Britain, are standing firmly by Pluto. They say they will continue to regard the icy orb as a full-blown planet with a powerful pull on our psyche, despite the astronomers' decision.

"Whether he's a planet, an asteroid, or a radioactive matzo ball, Pluto has proven himself worthy of a permanent place in all horoscopes," says Shelley Ackerman, columnist for the spirituality Web site Beliefnet.com. Ms. Ackerman criticized the IAU for not including astrologers in its decision. Others warned that Scorpios -- people born between Oct. 23 and Nov. 21 -- should be especially cautious in the coming days because the sign is closely associated with Pluto.

"Scorpios can be extremely explosive, and very direct, and this could be the trigger that makes them explode," says Milton Black, an Australian astrologer who claims to have more than 580,000 clients. Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice, take note. All three are Scorpios.

Prof Hawking, who has motor neurone disease, said the EU should not follow the "reactionary lead" of the US president, George Bush, who last week used his power of veto to scupper a controversial bill that would have lifted a ban on US federal funding for stem cell research. The academic, who is Lucasian professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge, said ahead of today's crucial European Council meeting: "Stem cell research is the key to developing cures for degenerative conditions like Parkinson's and motor neurone disease from which I and many others suffer. The fact that the cells may come from embryos is not an objection, because the embryos are going to die anyway.

"It is morally equivalent to taking [away the potential for] a heart transplant from a victim in a car accident."

Prof Hawking, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease at the age of 21, said he was "pleased" that "people are now using stem cells for motor neurone disease, but I'm not holding my breath".

"We may have less time than we think to do something (about the prospect of global warming)," Dr. Ira Leifer, a marine scientist at University of California Santa Barbara, said in an interview. Leifer is the main author of a study that looks at how "peak blowouts" of melting undersea formations called methane hydrates could release the potent greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. The study was published Thursday in Global Biogeochemical Cycles, a climate science publication.

The distribution of methane hydrates throughout the world is so vast that energy companies hope one day to tap the resource. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that such formations could harbor as much as 200,000 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Hydrate formations exist under hundreds of meters of water in places like the Gulf of Mexico and closer to the surface in permafrost areas of the Arctic. Methane, the main component of the fossil fuel natural gas, has two faces. When burned it releases less carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas that scientists believe are warming the earth, than any other fossil fuel. But if it escapes to the atmosphere without being burned, it can trap heat rapidly because it is a greenhouse gas at least 20 times stronger than carbon dioxide.

The study measured the amount of methane that escaped to the atmosphere from a peak blowout from small volcanoes on the ocean floor off of California. It found that virtually all of the methane escaping from the deep water reached the atmosphere, countering some theories that methane seeps out in tiny bubbles that harmlessly dissolve in the ocean. Leifer said rising temperatures could warm the oceans, creating a feedback loop in which warm temperatures make global warming even worse.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), 100,000 to 300 million trillion cu. ft. (tcf) of methane exists globally in hydrate form--most of it in the ocean floor. "There's more energy potential locked up in methane hydrate formations across the world than in all other fossil energy resources combined," says Brad Tomer, director of the Department of Energy's Strategic Center for Natural Gas and Oil.

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Methane bound in hydrates could provide the world with an astounding amount of natural gas--if it could be safely extracted.

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[I]f methane gas escapes directly to the atmosphere--as a byproduct of extraction, an earthquake or warming ocean waters--the consequences could be dire. Methane is a greenhouse gas 21 times more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide. Today, 3000 times more methane exists in hydrate deposits than in the atmosphere. Releasing even a fraction of this amount would amplify global warming. The decomposition of hydrates near the surface of the sea floor could even trigger tsunamis by causing landslides on the continental slope.

The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, passed by the US Senate on Tuesday, would lift rules Bush set in 2001 that make federal funds available only for research on a small number of embryonic stem cell lines which existed at that time. Supporters have said the research offers major hope to cure many life-threatening illnesses including Parkinsons disease and Alzheimers' disease.

But the president had repeatedly threatened to veto the bill on moral grounds. "We must also remember that embryonic stem cells come from human embryos that are destroyed for their cells. Each of these human embryos is a unique human life with inherent dignity and matchless value," Bush said in his comments to specially invited families at the White House.

"Some people argue that finding new cures for disease requires the destruction of human embryos," Bush said, before adding: "I disagree. "I believe that with the right techniques and the right policies we can achieve scientific progress while living up to our ethical responsibilities."

Last week, the journal Science published a letter from three researchers criticizing the claim that adult stem cells are preferable to embryonic stem cells. The authors included Dr. Steven Teitelbaum of Washington University in St. Louis, who has used adult stem cells to treat bone diseases in children. The authors wrote that the exaggerated claims for adult stem cells "mislead laypeople and cruelly deceive patients."

The bill heading for Bush's desk would expand federal funding of work on stem cells taken from embryos. Such cells come from extra embryos originally created for in-vitro fertilization. Many experts believe embryonic stem cells could one day help regenerate damaged tissue for patients with conditions such as diabetes, spinal cord injury or Parkinson's disease, though embryonic cells have not yet been tested in humans.

Adult stem cells, which usually come from bone marrow transplants or umbilical cord blood, are widely considered less flexible than embryonic stem cells in forming many types of tissue. Yet adult stem cells already are in common use for certain conditions, such as replenishing immune cells after cancer treatment and treating some bone and blood disorders. Bush allowed limited funding of embryonic stem cell work in August 2001, but he banned funding of cells taken from embryos after that date. However, private foundations and companies have continued to fund new embryonic research. Many scientists and lawmakers argue that the federal funding limitation has hindered progress.

White House spokesman Ken Lisaius on Tuesday could not provide the name of a stem cell researcher who shares Rove's views on the superior promise of adult stem cells.

The United States and some of its closest allies are launching a concerted campaign to block a possible return to large-scale whaling and to reverse the gains made by pro-whaling forces in the international commission that regulates hunting of the massive creatures.

The political shift in the International Whaling Commission, which was on full display last week when the body narrowly backed a nonbinding resolution in favor of commercial whaling, has alarmed environmentalists and senior officials in the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Britain. In interviews last week, several said they feel a duty to mount an organized effort to ensure that the 20-year-old whaling moratorium remains intact.

"This is now a period in human history where the whaling issue will be decided once and for all," said Ian Campbell, Australia's minister for the environment and heritage, in an interview Thursday. "Whaling will be stopped, if I have my way, with the only exception being for aboriginal subsistence whaling."

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William T. Hogarth, who directs NOAA's fisheries service and was elected to chair the Whaling Commission for the next three years, said that while the international community is deadlocked, whaling countries such as Japan are expanding their hunts. He added that some whale populations have yet to recover because they are still being hunted, being killed in ship collisions or becoming entangled in fishing gear. "We're at an impasse, but we're killing more whales," Hogarth said, referring to Japan, Norway and Iceland. "We're not really protecting whales in the IWC, which we should be." Anti-whaling countries won a few key votes during the commission's five-day annual meeting on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts that ended Tuesday. They defeated a proposal that would have required secret ballots on whaling issues.

But Bush administration officials said they were alarmed by the 33 to 32 vote in favor of the nonbinding declaration, which says the commission is "about managing whaling to ensure whale stocks are not over-harvested, rather than protecting all whales irrespective of their abundance." It would take a three-quarters vote to repeal the current ban on whaling.

Claudia A. McMurray, assistant secretary for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs at the State Department, said the declaration "will embolden [whaling countries] to work harder, so we have a challenge ahead of us. . . . We can clearly see they are going to continue to try to make changes in the International Whaling Commission as we move forward."

The Earth is the hottest it has been in at least 400 years, probably even longer. The National Academy of Sciences, reaching that conclusion in a broad review of scientific work requested by Congress, reported Thursday that the "recent warmth is unprecedented for at least the last 400 years and potentially the last several millennia."

A panel of top climate scientists told lawmakers that the Earth is running a fever and that "human activities are responsible for much of the recent warming." Their 155-page report said average global surface temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere rose about 1 degree during the 20th century. The report was requested in November by the chairman of the House Science Committee, Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., to address naysayers who question whether global warming is a major threat.

Last year, when the House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman, Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, launched an investigation of three climate scientists, Boehlert said Barton should try to learn from scientists, not intimidate them. The Bush administration also has maintained that the threat is not severe enough to warrant new pollution controls that the White House says would have cost 5 million Americans their jobs.

Japan suffered an unexpected and total defeat when it tried to start attacking a 20-year-old ban on commercial whaling at the International Whaling Commission's meeting in the Caribbean state of St Kitts and Nevis last night. The member countries of the UN whaling treaty voted down two proposals by Japan - the most significant one for secret ballots so that small Pacific and Caribbean nations that receive Japanese aid could unpick the protection of whales without fear of retribution.

The other proposal sought to prevent the commission from discussing the fate of dolphins and porpoises as well as whales. Ian Campbell, Australia's environment minister and a leader of the anti-whaling bloc, said: "The great victory is that we have raised the levels of understanding of this issue to levels that have probably not been seen since the 1970s. "Tens of thousands of whales have been saved because of the moratorium that is under threat." Conservationists and anti-whaling countries had predicted that the Japanese were likely to win a narrow overall majority of pro-whaling nations at this year's meeting.

However, quiet lobbying by anti-whaling countries led by Australia, Britain, New Zealand and South Africa, and environmental groups, appeared to have seen off the threat, though only by the narrowest of margins. Earlier, in the first vote of the five-day talks, anti-whaling nations managed to hold on to a majority in a vote about whether to drop an item about the conservation of small whale, porpoise and dolphin species from the agenda. The vote was won by 32 votes to 30, with one known pro-whaling nation, Senegal, absent and Denmark abstaining. Japan had opened the conference with a demand for the resumption of commercial whaling. Japan and other whaling nations such as Norway and Iceland almost got a simple majority at the annual IWC meeting a year ago in South Korea, but some allies failed to pay their dues and could not vote and others did not turn up. It is unclear as yet who let them down this time.

Sarah Duthie, of Greenpeace, said: "Whaling history may not have been rewritten this year but it was too close for comfort. The anti-whaling countries must see this as a wake-up call and add action to their rhetoric. "Greenpeace will once again challenge the whalers on the high seas; the question is, what are the anti-whaling countries prepared to do?"

"A typical whale song lasts for perhaps fifteen minutes; the longest, about an hour. Often it is repeated, identically, beat for beat, measure for measure, note for note. Occasionally, a group of whales will leave their winter waters in the midst of a song and six months later return to continue at precisely the right note, as if there had been no interruption. Very often the members of the group will sing the same song together. By some mutual consensus, some collaborative songwriting, the piece changes month by month, slowly and predictably. These vocalizations are complex. If the songs of the humpback whale are enunciated as a tonal language, the total information content, the number of bits of information in such songs, is some 10 to the power of 6 bits, about the same as the information content of The Iliad or The Odyssey."

The space travel agency, Space Adventures, has announced plans to develop a commercial "Spaceport" in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to take tourists on sub-orbital flights. The proposed facility in Ras al-Khaimah, the most northern of the seven emirates that form the UAE, would be the first of several such spaceports under a global development project budgeted at more than 250 million dollars.

Other potential locations have been identified in Asia, specifically Singapore, and North America. The company said it had already received clearance from the UAE authorities to operate sub-orbital space flights in their air space. "The close proximity to Dubai, one of the worlds leading luxury tourist destinations, makes (Ras al-Khaimah) a choice location for Spaceflight operations," said space adventures president and CEO, Eric Anderson yesterday. "Suborbital flights will offer millions of people the opportunity to experience the greatest adventure available, space travel," Anderson said.

Currently the only operating space tourism agency, space adventures first made its name by sending US millionaire Dennis Tito into space in 2001. Since then, two other ultra-wealthy tourists have made similar trips, South African mark Shuttle worth in 2002 and last year another American millionaire businessman, Greg Olsen, who paid 20 million dollars to spend eight days aboard the international space station.

Cardinal Paul Poupard, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, said the Genesis description of how God created the universe and Darwin's theory of evolution were "perfectly compatible" if the Bible were read correctly. His statement was a clear attack on creationist campaigners in the US, who see evolution and the Genesis account as mutually exclusive.

"The fundamentalists want to give a scientific meaning to words that had no scientific aim," he said at a Vatican press conference. He said the real message in Genesis was that "the universe didn't make itself and had a creator".

This idea was part of theology, Cardinal Poupard emphasised, while the precise details of how creation and the development of the species came about belonged to a different realm - science. Cardinal Poupard said that it was important for Catholic believers to know how science saw things so as to "understand things better". His statements were interpreted in Italy as a rejection of the "intelligent design" view, which says the universe is so complex that some higher being must have designed every detail.

Although he said that curriculum decisions should be made by school districts rather than the federal government, Bush told Texas newspaper reporters in a group interview at the White House on Monday that he believes that intelligent design should be taught alongside evolution as competing theories.

"Both sides ought to be properly taught . . . so people can understand what the debate is about," he said, according to an official transcript of the session. Bush added: "Part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought. . . . You're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, and the answer is yes."

These comments drew sharp criticism yesterday from opponents of the theory, who said there is no scientific evidence to support it and no educational basis for teaching it.

Much of the scientific establishment says that intelligent design is not a tested scientific theory but a cleverly marketed effort to introduce religious -- especially Christian -- thinking to students. Opponents say that church groups and other interest groups are pursuing political channels instead of first building support through traditional scientific review.

Mr. Frist, a heart-lung transplant surgeon who said last month that he did not back expanding financing "at this juncture," announced his decision this morning in a lengthy Senate speech. He said that while he had reservations about altering Mr. Bush's four-year-old policy, which placed strict limits on taxpayer financing for the work, he supports the bill nonetheless.

"While human embryonic stem cell research is still at a very early stage, the limitations put in place in 2001 will, over time, slow our ability to bring potential new treatments for certain diseases," Mr. Frist said. "Therefore, I believe the president's policy should be modified." His speech received the approval of Democrats as well as Republicans.

"I admire the majority leader for doing this," Senator Harry Reid, the minority leader and Democrat of Nevada, said immediately after the speech. He and Senator Dick Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, said Mr. Frist's stance would give hope to people everywhere. Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, contending they were discussing "the difference between life and death," said of Mr. Frist, "I believe the speech that he has just made on the Senate floor is the most important speech made this year, and perhaps the most important speech made in years."

He added: "This is a speech that will reverberate around the world, including at the White House."

O'Connor, who plans to step down after 24 years, was the most business-friendly justice on the nine-member court. She voted to cut punitive damages, curb class-action lawsuits and enforce arbitration agreements against consumers. "As somebody who stands at the podium regularly on behalf of business, I always thought I had a sympathetic ear in Justice O'Connor," says Carter G. Phillips, a Washington lawyer with Sidley Austin Brown & Wood who has 45 Supreme Court arguments to his credit.

That may not hold true for O'Connor's replacement. Social conservatives, focused on such issues as abortion and gay marriage, want President George W. Bush to appoint a justice along the lines of Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia. Their rule-oriented approach to the law often leads them to dismiss the more pragmatic concerns of businesses.

In business cases that divided the court over the past six terms, Scalia and Thomas opposed the views of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce twice as often as O'Connor did. In the 2002-03 term alone, Scalia and Thomas rejected business positions in cases involving Norfolk Southern Corp., Nike Inc., State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., the pharmaceutical industry and the insurance industry. "Social conservatives admire Justices Scalia and Thomas, but Justices O'Connor and Kennedy have been much better for business interests," says Walter Dellinger, a Washington lawyer and Duke University law professor who was the Clinton administration's top Supreme Court lawyer. "Pragmatism works well for business. Ideology often does not."

Documents leaked to a whistle-blower project and published last week in New York Times showed that Mr Cooney repeatedly deleted warnings in official policy papers about climate change. He also emphasised doubts about the scientific research into greenhouse gases.

The revelation came just 24 hours after President George W. Bush said his administration viewed climate change as a "serious long-term" problem. The White House denied it was politicising science and said Mr. Cooney's changes were part of the normal policy review process.

In handwritten notes on drafts of several reports issued in 2002 and 2003, the official, Philip A. Cooney, removed or adjusted descriptions of climate research that government scientists and their supervisors, including some senior Bush administration officials, had already approved. In many cases, the changes appeared in the final reports.

The dozens of changes, while sometimes as subtle as the insertion of the phrase "significant and fundamental" before the word "uncertainties," tend to produce an air of doubt about findings that most climate experts say are robust.

Mr. Cooney is chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the office that helps devise and promote administration policies on environmental issues. Before going to the White House in 2001, he was the "climate team leader" and a lobbyist at the American Petroleum Institute, the largest trade group representing the interests of the oil industry. A lawyer with a bachelor's degree in economics, he has no scientific training[emphasis added].

In one instance in an October 2002 draft of a regularly published summary of government climate research, "Our Changing Planet," Mr. Cooney amplified the sense of uncertainty by adding the word "extremely" to this sentence: "The attribution of the causes of biological and ecological changes to climate change or variability is extremely difficult." In a section on the need for research into how warming might change water availability and flooding, he crossed out a paragraph describing the projected reduction of mountain glaciers and snowpack. His note in the margins explained that this was "straying from research strategy into speculative findings/musings."

Mr. Cooney's alterations can cause clear shifts in meaning. For example, a sentence in the October 2002 draft of "Our Changing Planet" originally read, "Many scientific observations indicate that the Earth is undergoing a period of relatively rapid change." In a neat, compact hand, Mr. Cooney modified the sentence to read, "Many scientific observations point to the conclusion that the Earth may be undergoing a period of relatively rapid change." [emphasis added]

The vote, 238 to 194 with 50 Republicans in favor, fell far short of the two-thirds majority required to overturn a presidential veto, setting up a possible showdown between Congress and Mr. Bush, who has never exercised his veto power. An identical bill has broad bipartisan support in the Senate; moments after the House vote, the Senate sponsors wrote to the Republican leader, Bill Frist, urging him to put it on the agenda.

The House action is the first vote on embryonic stem cell research since August 2001, when Mr. Bush opened the door to taxpayer financing for the studies, but only with strict limits. The new bill permits the government to pay for studies involving human embryos that are in frozen storage at fertility clinics, so long as couples conceiving the embryos certified that they had made a decision to discard them.

"I am a strong supporter of stem cell research, but I've made very clear to Congress that the use of federal taxpayer money to promote science that destroys life in order to save life, I am against this," said Mr. Bush, speaking in the Oval Office during a brief joint appearance with the Danish prime minister, Anders Rasmussen. "Therefore, if the bill does that, I will veto it."

The president also expressed grave concerns about a report that South Korean researchers have perfected a method of cloning human embryos to extract their stem cells that could, theoretically, be used to develop treatments and cures that would be exact genetic matches to patients.

"I'm very concerned about cloning," Mr. Bush said. "I worry about a world in which cloning becomes acceptable."

"The United States is being left farther behind every day, this morning by South Korea," said [Republican Senator Arlen] Specter. He added, "I don't like veto threats and I don't like comments about overriding the veto, but this issue is going to be the focal point of my subcommittee."

The Democratic leader in the Senate, Harry Reid of Nevada, said in a statement: "Embryonic stem cell research provides us the hope of new cures and therapies and we should embrace this research opportunity and not allow radical ideology to stand in the way. President Bush has made the wrong choice, putting politics ahead of safe, responsible science."