Tail

EDGEWATER -- Greg Ruiz uses a pair of tweezers, tugging flesh out of the leg of a curiously hairy crab and thrusting it into a plastic vial. Ruiz, director of the Marine Invasions Research Lab, packs the vial into a blue plastic box, which he will ship off for DNA analysis to determine where the crab came from. Then he aims his pincers at his next subject - one of six Chinese mitten crabs spread out on his lab table. Ruiz is like a detective. He's trying to solve the mystery of how this spider-like Asian creature started breeding in the Chesapeake Bay and whether it's likely to threaten blue crabs or other native species.

Scientists have succeeded in reprogramming ordinary cells from the tips of mouse tails and rewinding their developmental clocks so they are virtually indistinguishable from embryonic stem cells, according to studies published today. If the discovery applies to human cells - and researchers are optimistic that it will - it would offer a straightforward method for creating a limitless supply of cell lines tailor-made for patients without ethical strings attached. Three research groups said they accomplished their feat by activating four genes that are turned on in days-old embryos.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Doug O'Neill could have complained after yesterday's draw for the 133rd Kentucky Derby. His entry, Great Hunter, will start from the far outside in the No. 20 position. Not an auspicious place to begin, given that only one horse has won from out there. But O'Neill, who will also start Liquidity from Post 9, didn't complain. In fact, every trainer seemed to find a positive for his horse's starting position - if not for the morning line odds.

April Powers Dog groomer Lucky Stars Country Kennels, Hampstead Salary --$28,000 Age --21 Years --on the job: Almost three How she got started --Powers said she always liked dogs and filled out an application to work at a kennel in Reisterstown. She was given a job as a dog brusher/bather. Powers spent 10 hours working her first day to try it out and said it was the best day she ever worked. Powers stayed there for about six months, then left to work as a veterinary technician. After about two years, she took a job at PETCO in Hanover, Pa., and completed the company's eight-week dog-grooming certification.

Slowing down only to take off her boots to be X-rayed, Linda Summars breezed through security in Oklahoma City and right onto a Southwest Airlines plane headed to Baltimore. The designer traveling this week from Yukon, Okla., said there was plenty of overhead bin space, which she didn't need because she carried only her laptop. And her flight? "They made a quick trip of it," she said. "It arrived early." It seems there are unintended benefits from new security rules that ban liquids in carry-ons: shorter security lines, faster airplane boarding and, maybe, more on-time flights.

NASA's Stardust mission, a seven-year effort to learn more about the origins of the solar system by capturing particles from the tail of a comet and returning them to Earth, ended successfully yesterday when the spacecraft's scorched capsule parachuted into the Utah desert, its cargo intact. The desk-size capsule glowed red as it streaked across the morning sky over the northwest United States on its way to a soft-landing at the Air Force Test and Training Range in Dugway, Utah. The mission was a major victory for NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, Calif.

With holiday season bills coming in, the lure of truly inexpensive wine is stronger than ever. This Australian pinot grigio won't win prizes for complexity, but it's a more-than-respectable value for a dry white wine. About two bucks cheaper than other wine in Yellow Tail's reliable lineup, it delivers appealing flavors of lime, lemon, hazelnut and pears. This medium-bodied wine should be drunk over the next six months while it is as fresh as possible. Serve with --salmon, ham, hors d'oeuvres.

A greenish alien object from deep space should be visible this weekend to Marylanders aided by nothing more extraordinary than very dark skies or binoculars. Comet C/2004 Q2 (Machholz), a dusty ice ball only a few kilometers wide and surrounded by a vast blob of gas and dust, is climbing higher in the sky each night as it passes Earth en route to a whirl around the sun. This weekend, it is high overhead in the evening sky, moving slowly to the north and passing just west of the Pleiades star cluster.

A once-promising Ravens season teetered on the brink yesterday morning. Entry into the postseason depended on a seemingly impossible dream: a win for Baltimore and losses for three other NFL teams. What was a worried football fan to do? In a word, tailgate. Outdoor oases filled with beer, burgers and banter popped up again yesterday morning for the last time this season. On the well-tended Ravens stadium parking lots and in hard-bitten industrial corners of South Baltimore, football aficionados spent time trashing their team's embattled offensive coordinator, pitying the Ravens' high-performing defense and looking with hope to next season.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - If there exists a horse in the 130th Kentucky Derby who can capture the country's heart, then it's Smarty Jones. He is undefeated after six races, and if he wins the Derby on Saturday at Churchill Downs, he would become the first undefeated Derby winner since Seattle Slew in 1977. Smarty Jones would earn $5.8 million, the $800,000 winner's check plus a $5 million bonus from Oaklawn Park. That would be the richest payday in racing history. The chestnut colt nearly died last summer at Philadelphia Park when, while training in the morning, he suddenly reared in the starting gate and cracked his head on an iron bar. He fractured his skull and several bones in his face.