Home team

Academics have proved what Premiership football managers have been complaining about for years — that referees are inconsistent and favour home teams. Analysing over 2,500 English Premiership matches, researchers discovered that referees were statistically more likely to award yellow and red cards against the away team. The study, which is to be published in the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, will give football authorities the firm evidence they need to help improve refereeing.

Nuclear plant

The Russian nuclear-energy company, Rosenergoatom, is planning to build a floating nuclear power plant to deliver electricity to hard-to-reach northern territories near the White Sea where harsh weather makes regular coal and oil fuel deliveries unreliable and expensive. The Russian plan is to mount two reactors on a football-field-size barge, float it to a port, connect power lines to the mainland, and turn on the reactors to provide electricity. The $200-million floating plant is slated for construction next year, reports the magazine Popular Science.

Comet probe

The surviving portion of the Deep Impact space probe that watched as its other half smashed into a comet on July 4 is being sent on a mission to study another comet. Nasa announced last week that it has accepted a proposal by the University of Maryland, which developed and manages Deep Impact, to send the vehicle to intercept Comet Boethin. Researchers hope information gathered from Boethin will help further the understanding of how comets formed and evolved and if they played a role in the emergence of life on Earth.