bears

In a development sure to drive Stephen Colbert apoplectic, the Japanese national laboratory RIKEN has announced the development of robotic nurses that look like bears. Called Robot for Interactive Body Assistance (RIBA), the robot was designed to help a country facing the dual problem of a shortage of nurses and a rapidly aging population.

Leave it to English schoolchildren, the scientific minds behind Winnie the Pooh and Paddington, to achieve the latest astronautical milestone -- sending teddy bears into space.

Brigham Young University bear biologist Thomas Smith says that guns aren't necessarily your best option when facing down one of the beasts.

Smith and his team analyzed 20 years worth of incidents in Alaska, and found that the wilderness equivalent of pepper spray effectively deterred bears 92 percent of the time, whereas guns only did the trick one-third less often. (He studied polar bears, too, hence the picture, at left, of an unconscious mother and her cubs. And yes, he did get away before everyone woke up.)