Original Signal - Transmitting Science

National Geographic

Stolen Sarcophagus Handed Over to Egypt: Confiscated in Miami, a brightly painted, 3,000-year-old sarcophagus was handed over to Egypts antiquities chief, Zahi Hawass, on Wednesday. Video.

New Frog Found—Has "Striking" Color Change: The jungle species undergoes a striking change from a black, yellow-spotted youngster to a peachy, blue-eyed adult, scientists say.

Sea Spray Detected 900 Miles Inland: Sea spray has been detected in the middle of the United States, some 900 miles (1,400 kilometers) from any ocean—and it may be contributing to air pollution, a new study says.

See-Through Vision Invented: Scientists have figured out how see through thin opaque barriers by unscrambling what little light passes through.

Space Photos This Week: Sun Plume, Moon Lander, More: A satellite sees an oncoming iceberg smashup, an artist re-creates a Saturn moon landers arrival, a Mars orbiter celebrates a milestone, and more in this weeks best space pictures.

Einstein's Gravity Confirmed on a Cosmic Scale: We may finally have proof that general relativity applies to cosmic bodies great and small—and that dark matter and dark energy are real.

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PICTURES: Octopuses Carry Coconuts as Instant Hideaways: Octopuses off Indonesia make stow-and-go shelters out of empty coconut shells, a new study says. Once they stopped laughing, scientists hailed the behavior as a new form of tool use.

Elusive Tree Kangaroos Fitted With Video Cameras: These hard-to-reach plush toys on Papua New Guineau have been outfitted with Crittercams for the first time. The breathtaking treetop footage is already solving tree kangaroo mysteries, researchers say. Video.

Ten Climate Change "Flagship" Species Named: Starving koalas, homeless clownfish, and gender-bending sea turtles are among ten species that join the polar bear as icons of global warmings impact, according to a new report released in Copenhagen.

Under Yellowstone, Magma Pocket 20% Larger Than Thought: The massive column of molten rock that feeds the parks volcano dives deeper and fills a magma chamber bigger than previous estimates, according to the most detailed model yet of the regions plumbing.

"Bizarre" Octopuses Carry Coconuts as Instant Shelters: Scientists are blown away by octopuses discovered tip-toeing with coconut-shell halves suctioned to their undersides, then reassembling the halves and disappearing inside—a rare example of animal tool use, a new study says. With video.

Viking Weapon-Recycling Site Found in England?: Todays recyclers can now conceivably lay claim to a rich, bloody, brawny heritage, if a new discovery is any indication.

SPACE PHOTOS THIS WEEK: Geminids, Two-Faced Moon, More: A superbright meteor pierces the California sky, Hubble unveils its holiday wreath, dust helps solve a Saturn moon mystery, and more in our selection of the weeks best space pictures.

Nearby "Super Earth" May Have Oceans, Thick Atmosphere: A newfound planet close enough for us to probe its atmosphere is almost the same size and composition as Earth—but is still completely alien to anything in our solar system, astronomers say.

PHOTOS: Ten Environmental Losses of 2009: The environment—and the environmental movement—suffered significant setbacks in 2009, experts say. Among the lowlights: Lemurs became food, a lot of ice became water, and in the Caribbean some sharks became nonexistent.

Shroud of Turin Not Jesus', Tomb Discovery Suggests: Archaeologists have found the only known burial shroud from a Jesus-era tomb in Jerusalem. Not only is it nothing like the Shroud of Turin, but it also held the worlds earliest known leper.

Lava, Not Water, Made Mars "Riverbed": At least one channel thought to have been carved by water was actually built by lava flows, according to a new study of Martian surface features.

Ancient Corpses Ritually Dug Up, Torn Apart, Reburied: For 4,500 years in what is now Mexico, decomposing bodies were pulled apart and reburied, according to what may be the first evidence for ritual double burials.

Water Found in Apollo Moon Rocks: It turns out evidence for water on the moon was right under our noses all along, according to new studies of rocks retrieved by Apollo astronauts.

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Universe Today

NASA manager says Shuttle Extension Possible; Key Issue Is Money not Safety: NASA Shuttle program manager John Shannon said on Tuesday (Mar 9) that the Space Shuttle Program can indeed be safely extended beyond the existing plan to retire the fleet after completing the four missions currently remaining to fly by the

Answer to Universe Puzzle No. 4 Now Posted: I've now posted the answer in the original post.Check back next week for another Universe Puzzle!© Jean Tate for Universe Today, 2010. |Permalink |No comment |Add todel.icio.usPost tags:Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

It’s Not Just The Astronauts That Are Getting Older: Representing what may be the first long term lunar environmental impact study, recent laser ranging data from the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico suggests the Lunar Ranging Retro Reflectors (LRRRs) left on the Moon by Apollo missions 11, 14 and

Massive Repeated Explosions Halted Star Formation in Early Universe: Scientists have found evidence of a catastrophic event they believe was responsible for halting the birth of stars in a galaxy in the early Universe. According to their findings, just 3 billion years after the Big Bang, a massive galaxy

SpaceX Falcon 9 Test Fire Ends with Abort: No official word from SpaceX yet, but it appears the 3.5 second test-fire on Tuesday of the Falcon 9 rocket aborted immediately after it started. The Falcon 9 sits on Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and

Where's My Jetpack? Right Here: Step right up — you can now get your very own jetpack. That's right, a real, not-science-fiction-honest-to-goodness jetpack. New Zealander Glenn Martin has been working on perfecting his jetpack for 30 years, and in 1998 created the Martin Aircraft Company

Carnival of Space #144, Oscar Edition: This week's Carnival of Space is hosted by Ian O'Neill over at Discovery News/Space, (and formerly of Universe Today!) who has given the Carnival the "Red Carpet" treatment.Click here to read the Carnival of Space #144.And if you’re interested in

Possibility of Past Water on Mars Takes a Hit: Images of Mars taken from orbit show a massive system of riverbeds and canyons etched by water. Or maybe not. A new study of one channel shows that it was formed by lava flow and not water, and the results

Obama to Unveil "Ambitous" Plan for NASA: President Obama will travel to Florida to unveil an "ambitious plan for NASA that sets the agency on a reinvigorated path of space exploration," according to a press release from the White House. The President will host a conference on

Universe Puzzle No. 4: As with last week's Universe Puzzle, something that cannot be answered by five minutes spent googling, a puzzle that requires you to cudgel your brains a bit, and do some lateral thinking. This is a puzzle on a "Universal" topic

Taking The Pulse Of A Supernova – NGC 4490: NGC 4490/4485 – T. Grossman, D. Hager and R. JohnsonWay out yonder some 40 to 50 million light years away in the constellation of Canes Venetici is a pair of interacting galaxies sometimes referred to as "The Cocoon". These two

A New Edition of This Week In Space: Florida's Space Coast braces for layoffs, Buzz Aldrin muses on the next steps for NASA and his upcoming stint on "Dancing with the Stars," plus other headlines from This Week In Space.© nancy for Universe Today, 2010. |Permalink |No comment

Astronomy Without A Telescope – The Hitchhikers Guide To The Solar System: Short on fuel, but good at astrophysics? It is possible to tour the solar system on less than 30 Altairian dollars a day by using the Interplanetary Transport Network (ITN).(...)Read the rest of Astronomy Without A Telescope – The Hitchhikers

Gorilla On Mars?: Classify this one under the same nonsense as the "Bigfoot on Mars" the wooden plank or Mars, or perhaps even the "Face on Mars." Just an optical illusions, folks from a very, very zoomed in image from the Mars rovers.

Bolden: There is No "Plan B" In Development: Several news sources reported Thursday that NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden had asked senior managers to come up with an alternate plan for the newly proposed NASA budget after members of Congress indicated they wanted to reject a White House proposal

Could Phobos Be Hollow?: Back in the 1950s and 1960s, there was some speculation that Mars moon Phobos could possibly be hollow due to the its unusual orbital characteristics. While scientists now agree that the moon is very likely not hollow, vast caverns may

Answer for This Week's WITU Challenge Now Posted: The answer is now available for this week's Where In The Universe Challenge. Find it back on the original post. Thanks to Jason Major for submitting the image for this week!And check back next week for another test of your

Weekend SkyWatcher's Forecast: March 5-7, 2010: Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! Are you ready for the weekend? Then let's spend it "stellar" as we take a look at a great series of open galactic star clusters. Gathering a few photons will enrich both the spirit and the mind!

Podcast: Behind the Scenes at NASA TV: Listen to the audio of this podcast at this link.You can also read the interviews below.Hi, this is Nancy Atkinson from Universe Today. Right now I'm at Kennedy Space Center, and I've had the opportunity to see a couple of

GOES-P Goes to Space: A Delta IV rocket rumbled and roared off launch pad 37B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida Thursday evening, sending the GOES-P satellite soaring into a crisp and clear night sky. With liftoff at 6:57 p.m. EST, the

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The New York Times

Panel Urges New Look at Caesarean Guidelines: The medical experts told an National Institutes of Health conference that the trend of “once a Caesarean, always a Caesarean” may be safely reversed.

Arguments Against Dolphin Slaughter: An Oscar-winning filmmaker describes his goals in revealing details of the ongoing dolphin slaughter in a Japanese town.

Disease Cause Is Pinpointed With Genome: Geneticists said the new research shows it is now possible to sequence the genome of a patient at reasonable cost and with sufficient accuracy to be of practical use to researchers.

Einstein's Theory of Relativity On Display: For the first time, the complete, original manuscript of the theory of relativity, profoundly human and surprisingly moving to examine, has been put on display in Jerusalem.

Panel Will Review U.N. Climate Work: The review aims to help the U.N. climate change panel avoid the kinds of errors that have brought its work into question in recent months, officials said Wednesday.

Neighbors Oppose Green Label for the Software Mogul Mitch Kapor’s Big House: When the software mogul Mitch Kapor won planning approval for his 10,000-square-foot house in Berkeley, Calif., neighbors were surprised that it will qualify as “green.”

Dogs That Detect Bedbugs: Bedbug-sniffing dogs are the new and furry front line in an escalating domestic war.

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Scientific American

Researchers Gain New Insights into the Mystery of Thalidomide-Caused Birth Defects: Half a century ago, thousands of pregnant women in 46 countries took a drug for morning sickness that would later be discovered to cause severe malformations in developing fetuses. Worldwide, roughly 10,000 affected children nicknamed "thalidomide babies" were born with

A New Spin on Conductivity: Electric Signals Can Propagate through an Insulator: An electric insulator, in the simplest terms, blocks the flow of electric current. So it would be a bit counterintuitive, to say the least, if a current on one side of an insulator could produce voltage on the other.

Floor Plan: Linoleum May Be Green, but Is There an Ecofriendly Way to Keep It Clean?: Dear EarthTalk: I have a new linoleum floor, which I chose partly for its ecofriendliness. How do I clean and maintain it without using harsh or toxic chemicals? --A. J. Maimbourg, via e-mail

Japan fish sellers blasts tuna ban: Japan is opposing a proposed Atlantic bluefin tuna ban, with everyone from fish sellers to the government calling it unnecessary.

Egyptian sarcophagus returns home: The United States hands over a well-preserved, 3,000-year old Pharaonic Sarcophagus to Egypt at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Arranged Marriages Can Be Real Love Connection: Think arranged marriages are loveless? Not so, says psychologist Robert Epstein, a contributing editor for Scientific American Mind magazine. He spoke March 10 at the 92nd Street Y’s Tribeca site in New York City:“And there’s even a study published in

Genomes for the whole family: By Janelle WeaverBy sequencing the genomes of three patients with rare genetic disorders, and comparing them with genetic information from unaffected family members, two studies have managed to narrow down the causes of the diseases.Between them, the analyses bring the

New Hope for Battling Brain Cancer (preview): In May 2006 Dwayne Berg woke up on a gurney in a Seattle emergency room, an IV in his arm and a team of doctors and nurses working him up. The last thing the 42-year-old financial executive could remember was

Divining the Right Drug: Imagine suffering from the crushing weight of major depression, then finally getting diagnosed and starting treatment with a drug--only to realize after two months that the medication, despite its unpleasant side effects, is not alleviating your depression. Unfortunately, this experience

Will the Clean Tech Bubble Burst?: Economic bubbles are now famous, and the collapse of the dot-com business a decade ago made the bursting of bubbles infamous.

Malaria rates drop in the Americas, but travelers still worry: MIAMI--Malaria continues to be a global scourge, sickening some 300 million to 500 million people annually. Most of the resulting one million to three million malaria deaths occur in regions where it is highly endemic, such as sub-Saharan Africa and

IPCC Errors Prompt Review by International Science Academies: African crop yields wither, along with the Amazon rainforest; Himalayan glaciers disappear by 2035. These are the erroneous predictions ascribed to the most recent report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)--a document reviewed by some 2,500 scientists

Einstein passes cosmic test: By Zeeya MeraliIt's another victory for Einstein -- albeit not a resounding one.

Chicken's split sex identity revealed: By Janet FangA study of sexually scrambled chickens suggests that sex in birds is determined in a radically different way from that in mammals.Researchers studied three chickens that appeared to be literally half-male and half-female, and found that nearly every

Pristine DNA discovered in fossilized eggshells: By Matt KaplanExtremely well-preserved DNA discovered in the fossilized eggshells of extinct bird species suggests that they could be a source of ancient genetic material for sequencing efforts.Eggshells are commonly found at fossil sites worldwide.

TB or Not TB?: Novel Detector Could Shorten Testing Times, Aid Treatment Efforts: Tuberculosis is a serious public health challenge in the developing world, where the infection claims roughly two million lives each year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) . Yet the disease, which is a leading killer of patients with

FCC reveals additional details of its plan to blanket the country with broadband: About a third of all Americans still lack broadband access to the Internet. At its Digital Inclusion Summit, held Tuesday in Washington, D.C., the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) provided a preview of its upcoming National Broadband Plan (NBP) to provide

How to Make a Cheap Silicon Solar Cell: 1366 Technologies can grow a solar cell directly from melted silicon

Auto-dicted: Sans a Major Diversion of U.S. Transportation Dollars to Mass Transit, Urban Traff(...): Dear EarthTalk: Short of massive efforts to build a public transportation infrastructure, which doesn’t appear likely anytime soon, what is being done to address traffic congestion, which is reaching absurd levels almost everywhere? --John Daniels, Baltimore

Introducing the Newest Scientific Measurement: a "Rosenfeld" for Energy Savings: Energy-efficiency gurus want to create the "Rosenfeld" as a simple unit of energy savings.It may not roll off the tongue like the ohm, watt or volt, but it would follow in their tradition. Many call Arthur Rosenfeld, a recently retired

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Space.com

Water Discovered in Apollo Moon Rocks Likely Came from Comets: Genuine lunar water has been in Apollo moon rocks for the first time, a finding that suggests the wet stuff originally came from comets.

Life-Enabling Molecules Spotted in Orion Nebula: NASAs Herschel telescope finds signatures of life-enabling molecules in Orion nebula.

Satellite Radar Photo Shows Eerie Space Station: A newly released photo from a German satellite has revealed the International Space Station (ISS) as an eerie apparition glowing in X-rays.

Sun's Nemesis Pelted Earth with Comets, Study Suggests: Is our Sun part of a binary star system? Some have suggested an unseen companion star, nicknamed Nemesis, is sending comets towards Earth.

Just One Hitch in Choosing China's First Women Astronauts: China has selected two female pilots as its first women astronauts, but they had to pass the marriage test first.

Einstein Was Right: General Relativity Confirmed: Score one more for Einstein. A new study has confirmed his theory of general relativity works on extremely large scales.

SpaceX Aborts Test Firing of Falcon 9 Engines: Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) aborted the Falcon 9 rockets first static fire test March 9.

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ScienceDaily

Water oxidation advance boosts potential for solar fuel: Chemists have developed the most potent homogeneous catalyst known for water oxidation, considered a crucial component for generating clean hydrogen fuel using only water and sunlight.

Immune cells that fight parasites may promote allergies and asthma: Millions of people in both the developing and developed world may benefit from new immune-system research findings that identify a cell population that fights off parasitic infections but also causes allergies and asthma.

Cassini data show ice and rock mixture inside Saturn's moon Titan: By precisely tracking NASAs Cassini spacecraft on its low swoops over Saturns moon Titan, scientists have determined the distribution of materials in the moons interior. The subtle gravitational tugs they measured suggest the interior has been too cold and sluggish

Aquatic 'dead zones' contributing to climate change: The increased frequency and intensity of oxygen-deprived dead zones along the worlds coasts can negatively impact environmental conditions in far more than local waters. Scientists explain that the increased amount of nitrous oxide produced in hypoxic waters can elevate concentrations

To Arctic animals, time of day really doesn't matter: In the far northern reaches of the Arctic, day versus night often doesnt mean a whole lot. During parts of the year, the sun does not set; at other times, its just the opposite. A new study shows that Arctic

New Alzheimer's test offers better opportunities for early detection: Early detection is key to more effective treatment for Alzheimers disease and other forms of cognitive impairment, and recent research shows that a new test is more than 95 percent effective in detecting cognitive abnormalities associated with these diseases.

If bonobo Kanzi can point as humans do, what other similarities can rearing reveal?: You may have more in common with Kanzi, Panbanisha and Nyota, three language-competent bonobos living at Great Ape Trust, than you thought. And those similarities, right at your fingertip, might one day tell scientists more about the effect of culture

Movement disorder symptoms are lessened by an antibiotic: Treating worms with ampicillin helps (...): Discovery of an antibiotics capacity to improve cell function in laboratory tests is providing movement disorder researchers with leads to more desirable molecules with potentially similar traits, according to scientists.

Inventing new oat and barley breads: Scientists are working on a delicious new all-oat or all-barley bread.

Atmospheric nanoparticles impact health, weather professor says: Nanoparticles are atmospheric materials so small that they cant be seen with the naked eye, but they can very visibly affect both weather patterns and human health all over the world -- and not in a good way, according to

Scientists make important discovery in gene regulation: Scientists have a greater understanding of how our genes are controlled following a major research project. The findings of the study, which looked at how proteins work as teams to control genes in the cells, could also help to unravel

Scavenging energy waste to turn water into hydrogen fuel: Materials scientists have designed a way to harvest small amounts of waste energy and harness them to turn water into usable hydrogen fuel.

Dscovery gives insight into brain 'replay' process: The hippocampus, a part of the brain essential for memory, has long been known to replay recently experienced events. Previously, replay was believed to be a simple process of reviewing recent experiences in order to help consolidate them into long-term

Quantum dots spotlight DNA-repair proteins in motion: Repair proteins appear to efficiently scan the genome for errors by jumping like fleas between DNA molecules, sliding along the strands, and perhaps pausing at suspicious spots, say researchers who tagged the proteins with quantum dots to watch the action

Traces of the past: Computer algorithm able to 'read' memories: Computer programs have been able to predict which of three short films a person is thinking about, just by looking at their brain activity. The research provides further insight into how our memories are recorded.

Human cells exhibit foraging behavior like amoebae and bacteria: When cells move about in the body, they follow a complex pattern similar to that which amoebae and bacteria use when searching for food, researchers have found.

Mother's flu during pregnancy may increase baby's risk of schizophrenia: Rhesus monkey babies born to mothers who had the flu while pregnant had smaller brains and showed other brain changes similar to those observed in human patients with schizophrenia, a study has found.

Behavior of single protein observed in unprecedented detail: Scrutinizing a single molecule for more than a few milliseconds used to require effectively stapling it down, inhibiting its normal behavior. Now, using a newly developed technique, chemists have for the first time confined a protein (one involved in photosynthesis),

Shocking recipe for making killer electrons: Take a bunch of fast-moving electrons, place them in orbit and then hit them with the shock waves from a solar storm. What do you get? Killer electrons. Thats the shocking recipe revealed by ESAs Cluster mission.

New alterations found in young adults with type 2 diabetes: Diet and aerobic exercise are highly effective for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, but not for obese subjects that have developed the disease when very young. A new study demonstrates that obese subjects between 18 and 25 years of

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New Scientist

Shoddy construction beats precision in quantum world: Instead of striving to eliminate imperfection physicists would do better to inject a bit of randomness into their quantum devices

'Terminator' asteroids could re-form after nuke: Wed better make sure that we send a big enough bomb to stop an incoming asteroid – if we dont, the space rock could reassemble

Today on New Scientist: 11 March 2010: All todays stories on newscientist.com at a glance, including: how the climate science battle spread to US classrooms, the worlds oldest rivers, and an upgraded robot toddler

Complete genomics flags its first disease triggers: Whole-genome sequencing has found its first disease-causing mutations – but will it illuminate our genetic dark matter, asks Ewen Callaway

Your partner has herpes - now the good news: The genes that allow herpes virus to evade our immune system have been identified and deleted to form a new vaccine

The green revolution sweeps into the bathroom: The humble toilet is set for a techno upgrade that could reduce pollution and save water, says Helen Knight

World's oldest rivers mapped under huge desert dunes: Ancient waterways buried beneath Australias Simpson desert have been traced – even though massive dunes make remote sensing impossible

Natural history museums - a photographer's playground: What is it about the museums that seems to draw art photographers to them? New Scientist asked three to explain why in an online gallery of their work

Robot toddler gets an upgrade: See the springier legs and more sensitive hands developed for a toddler-sized robot that will test theories about how flesh-and-blood children learn

Battle over climate science spreads to US schoolrooms: In three states, alternatives to the scientific consensus on global warming must be taught – and there seem to be links to efforts to teach creationism

The blessing and curse of choice: Choosing is important to us, but also disquieting – The Art of Choosing by Sheena Iyengar ranges far and wide to help you do it better

Innovation: Sending botnets the way of smallpox: Could forcing computer owners to keep their machines up to date with the latest security software help stop cybercrime in its tracks?

Mom and dad, stop stifling me - it's damaging my brain: Overprotective parents dont just limit their childrens freedom – they may also slow brain growth in an area linked to mental illness

Video: Extreme physics: Check out video of Anil Ananthaswamys journeys to some of the worlds most extreme locales where physics experiments are under way

Extreme physics at the ends of the earth: Anil Ananthaswamy visits some of the bleakest locations on Earth to explore the most tantalising mysteries of the cosmos in The Edge of Physics

Science funding: less hot air and more specifics: At the third science debate between the three main British political parties, it was unclear how secure the science budget will be after the upcoming general election

Accidental origins: Where species come from: Organisms gradually grow apart until they become different species – right? If new research is correct, its more often down to tricks of fate

Obesity: Food kills, flab protects: Disease and obesity go hand in hand, but an increase in body fat may actually be part of our bodys attempts to protect itself from the effects of unhealthy eating

Roger Penrose: Non-stop cosmos, non-stop career: The mathematician and self-proclaimed incurable optimist talks about his cameo in an Oscar-nominated movie and why he has no time for string theory

Turning tables on prostate cancer's drug resistance: Prostate cancer drugs trigger the release of a molecule that makes tumours grow – the discovery could lead to a way to keep the cancer at bay

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BBC

Thalidomide effect mystery solved: The mechanism by which thalidomide causes malformed limbs is revealed by scientists.

Half-cock chicken mystery solved: Researchers in Edinburgh say they have solved the mystery of why some chickens hatch out half-male and half-female.

Farming future: The dawning age of the agricultural automatons

Parched island: Politicians look away as Cyprus dies of drought

Japan protest over tuna ban plan: Japan voices opposition to a proposed ban on international trade in bluefin tuna, after the EU backs the plan.

In pictures: Bear power: The European brown bears love of electricity and telegraph poles is helping scientists gain new insights into its behaviour.

Scientists to review climate body: The UN Secretary-General asks the worlds leading science academies to review the UNs climate science body.

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CNN

Mars Science Lab launch delayed two years: NASAs launch of the Mars Science Laboratory -- hampered by technical difficulties and cost overruns -- has been delayed until the fall of 2011, NASA officials said at a news conference Thursday in Washington.

Shuttle lands at California air base: NASA officials Sunday waved off the first opportunity for space shuttle Endeavour to return to Earth, citing poor weather conditions.

iReporters watch planets, moon align

Inspiration for 'Contact' still listening: From a remote valley in Northern California, Jill Tarter is listening to the universe.

Indian lunar orbiter hit by heat rise: Scientists have switched off several on-board instruments to halt rising temperatures inside Indias first unmanned lunar spacecraft.

Mars Science Lab launch delayed two years: NASAs launch of the Mars Science Laboratory -- hampered by technical difficulties and cost overruns -- has been delayed until the fall of 2011, NASA officials said at a news conference Thursday in Washington.

Shuttle lands at California air base: NASA officials Sunday waved off the first opportunity for space shuttle Endeavour to return to Earth, citing poor weather conditions.

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Discovery

Brain Scan Can Read Your Thoughts: New insights into brain activity could explain how memories are formed and how they change over time.

'Miracle' Elephant Baby Beats the Odds: Zookeepers thought that Mr. Shuffles had died during labor, but the calf pulled through.

Parents Pass on Fewer Bad Genes Than Thought: The genetic code of an entire family reveals mutations arent passed on to children as commonly as thought.

Chicken Have Sexual Identity Issues: Birds that appear to be half-hen, half-rooster arent quite as mixed up on the cellular level.

Friday News Feedbag for March 5, 2010!: If this is your first exposure to the Friday News Feedbag...were glad to have you in the club. Welcome to Feedbag Nation, which stems from our weekly science news podcast that you can subscribe to here on iTunes and chat

Copernicus Invented Geology, Study Claims: The field of geology goes back further in history and deserves more respect, claim (you guessed it) geologists.

Dark Asteroids Found Near Earth: A new infrared telescope has found 16 previously unknown asteroids that swing close to Earth.

English Sets High Hurdles to Learning ABCs: Given the inherent complexity of English, reading to young children is critical to developing their language skills.

How the Chile Earthquake Went Nuclear: If you want to grow a truly massive earthquake, youve got to give it space. Scientists have known this basic fact for years -- more powerful earthquakes ramp up the shaking by breaking along huge stretches of faults. The magnitude

Moon Room With a View: If you think the newly installed panoramic view cupola on the International Space Station is cool, I’ve got a room for you on the moon -- with a view. It’s definitely a fixer-upper but well worth the effort. NASA’s Lunar

Mann Bites Dog: What did the Climategate scandal really expose -- a problem with climate science, or the modern media echo chamber? A special article from the pages of Skeptical Inquirer magazine.

What is the LHC Trying to Accomplish?: The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the most complex physics experiment ever constructed. Located underground, straddling the French-Swiss border, the 27 km-long ring of electromagnets is designed to accelerate protons and heavier charged particles to speeds close to that of

Ancient Tribal Meeting Ground Found in Australia: The 40,000-year-old site may hold the worlds southernmost traces of early human life.

China Eyes Combustible Ice for Energy: Combustible ice sounds like it belongs in Star Trek--and from the photos it looks that way, too. While the reality isnt that extreme, this energy source does involve high-seas adventure, phase changes, and environmental quandaries. Recently I saw a Xinhua

Ultraviolet Light Uncovers Real Giotto: The original Giotto painting (L) and the same artwork under ultra-violet rays (R). Art restorers working in Florence’s Santa Croce church have shed new (ultraviolet) light on Giotto’s faded paintings, discovering lush details and tridimensional scenes that have been hidden

'Underwear Bomber' Could Not Have Blown Up Plane: An experiment that detonated a bomb similar to the so-called underwear bombers shows that the plane would have withstood the impact.

Minority Births Set to Eclipse Whites in U.S.: 2010 could be the tipping point where the number of babies born to minorities outnumber white babies.

Ancient Norse Settlements Hit Cold Spell: A long cooling period may have led to famine in Greenland and Iceland more than 1,000 years ago.

Crocodile Ate Our Human Ancestors: New evidence suggests that our human ancestors 2 million years ago were eaten by a large crocodile that lurked at the waters edge before closing its jaws on victims and drawing them under to their death. (Early hominids, possibly belonging

International Space Station in New Light: No, this is not a new model Jedi TIE Fighter -- its the very real International Space Station passing across the field-of-view of a German Earth-watching satellite known as TerraSar-X . This radar image, taken last March, shows how smooth

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Science/AAAS

Thalidomide's Partner in Crime: A protein that binds to the notorious drug may help explain how it causes birth defects

Half a Million for Gene Sequencers: The 10th annual Albany Medical Center Prize—the U.S.s biggest prize in biomedicine—will go to...

Podcast: Genetics of Pain, Where HIV Hides, and More: Listen to a roundup of some of our favorite stories from the week

Fostering a Civil Conversation About Animals in Research: Q&A with Dario Ringach

Pardon, Your Thoughts Are Showing: Brain imaging and computer algorithms can detect specific memories in action

Fusion Delayed: ITER Start Date Moved Again: The scheduled start-up date for the ITER fusion reactor project looks set to slip again...

Roundup 3/10: Do the Math Edition: Governors and school superintendents from 48 states have released a draft of common math...

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USATODAY

Texas earthquakes may be linked to wells for gas mining: Saltwater pumped into the earth to release natural gas offers a plausible, but not definitive, explanation for small quakes in 2008 and 2009.

How Henrietta Lacks' cells fueled medical breakthroughs: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells the story of a poor black woman and some of the most important discoveries of modern medicine.

Researchers link inflammation to illness in overweight people: Obesity scientist dig deep to find the connection between body fat, white blood cells and a cascade of diseases.

Former head of Johnson Space Center dies in Texas: Aaron Cohen, the former director of NASAs Johnson Space Center who helped create the space shuttle program, has died in College Station after a long fight with cancer. He was 79.

Scientists misread data on global warming controversy: If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, then, with apologies to Kipling, you might not be a climate scientist.

Undersea Arctic methane could wreak havoc on climate: The potent greenhouse gas appears to be seeping through the Arctic Ocean floor and into the Earths atmosphere, research shows.

Scientists conclude asteroid, not volcanoes, wiped out dinosaurs: An international team Thursday concluded that it was an asteroid, not volcanoes, that wiped out dinosaurs 65.5 million years ago.

France's crumbling sea walls no match for ocean: The moon was full, the wind roared, the tide was high and people died by the dozens.

Scientists catalog zoo of bacteria inside our guts: The human digestive tract is a virtual zoo, full of a wide variety of bacteria, a new study found. And scientists say that is a good thing.

Fossils of snake eating dino eggs found in India: The fossilized remains of a 67 million-year-old snake found coiled around a dinosaur egg offer rare insight into the ancient reptiles dining habits and evolution, scientists said Tuesday.

Chile earthquake may have shortened Earth's day: Earths days may have gotten a little bit shorter since the massive earthquake in Chile, but dont feel bad if you havent noticed.

Fossils of snake eating dino eggs found in India: The fossilized remains of a 67 million-year-old snake found coiled around a dinosaur egg offer rare insight into the ancient reptiles dining habits and evolution, scientists said Tuesday.

Tap water contaminant atrazine 'castrates' frogs: A pesticide that contaminates the water consumed by millions of Americans has been found to produce gender-bending effects in male frogs.

Best science on TV: Comedy Central's Stewart, Colbert?: Skip Animal Planet and the Science Channel, say scientists, and go to Jon Stewarts The Daily Show and Stephen Colberts Colbert Report, both of which regularly host scientists.

Chilean earthquake hints at dangers of 'Big One' for USA: One of the really Big Ones to shake the United States was a magnitude-9.0 earthquake along the Pacific Northwest coast more than 300 years ago, before the arrival of people and development, that sent a catastrophic tsunami to Japan.

Atom smasher restarts to prepare for new science: Operators of the worlds largest atom smasher restarted their massive machine Sunday in a run up to experiments probing secrets of the universe, a spokeswoman said.

Tsunami alerts help save lives: Sensor buoys are among the newest tools deployed to give coastal areas enough time to prepare for potentially destructive waves.

Engineers tired of being outshined by scientists: Einstein, Newton, Hawking the heroes of science trip out of memory effortlessly.

Two huge icebergs let loose off Antarctica's coast: An iceberg about the size of Luxembourg that struck a glacier off Antarctica and dislodged another massive block of ice could lower the levels of oxygen in the worlds oceans, Australian and French scientists said Friday.

U.N. agrees to refine climate data: World weather agencies have agreed to collect more precise temperature data to improve climate change science, officials said Wednesday, as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged environment ministers to reject efforts by skeptics to derail a global climate deal.

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Digg Science

Half-Hen/Half-Rooster Shows Cells Can Decide Sex: In mammals, a flood of hormones tells cells to develop male or female features. But a new study of gender-bending chickens reveals that birds may be different. They have an additional way of determining whether they appear male or female:

Thicker Than Water? Antarctica's Amazing Ecosecret: Blood Falls is a waterfall in Antarctica that spews blood-red water from five stories up. It was first discovered in 1911, but it wasn’t until recently that scientists have begun to dig into just how significant the location really is

All-black penguin discovered | Yahoo! Green: An extremely rare sight in Antarctica makes one bird appear underdressed.

Brain Scans Depict Gulf War Syndrome Damage: SALT LAKE CITY — Nearly two decades after vets began returning from the Middle East complaining of Gulf War Syndrome, the federal government has yet to formally accept that their vague jumble of symptoms constitutes a legitimate illness.

How the Chile Earthquake Went Nuclear: As has been widely reported, the Chile quake was a megathrust earthquake, the largest class of tremor we know of. At magnitude 8.8, it was over 500 times more powerful than the Haiti quake.

New Charging Method Could Slash Battery Recharge Times: Apply an oscillating electric field to the anode of a lithium battery and the recharge drops dramatically, say chemists

Einstein's Gravity Confirmed on a Cosmic Scale: We may finally have proof that general relativity applies to cosmic bodies great and small, and that dark matter and dark energy are real. The theory of gravity proposed by Albert Einstein nearly a century ago can explain the dance

APOD: 2010 March 11 - Yukon Aurora with Star Trails: A different astronomy and space sciencerelated image is featured each day, along with a brief explanation.

(Wonderful, Awesome) Study Says Porn is Socially Beneficial: And in every region investigated, researchers have found that as pornography has increased in availability, sex crimes have either decreased or not increased.

15 Strange and Awesome Facts About Outer Space: As those who have kept in touch with the cosmos will tell you, space is one damn interesting place, chock-full of wacky phenomena.

'Doomsday' Seed Vault Stores 500,000 Crops: A global seed vault dug out of an arctic mountainside has just reached its half-million mark of seed varieties.

New Method to Turn Wood And Straw Into Liquid Biofuels: British scientists say theyve discovered a mechanism that might lead to a new way of converting wood and straw into liquid biofuels.

WTF? SNOW ON THE PALM TREES! Snow hits Mediterranean coast!: Blizzards have hit the French Mediterranean coast amid warnings of up to 20 inches of snow in Northern Spain on Tuesday.

MRI's successes put the brain on trial: As we obtain a finer-grained understanding of the brain structures that perform specific functions, the use of MRI to probe an individuals mental capacity may be ready to take a starring turn in the courtroom.

NASA space shuttle gearing up for big phase-out: NASA is working to finish out the space shuttle program with some key missions. First, the next space shuttle, Discovery, currently is sitting on Launch Pad 39A at NASAs Kennedy Space Center.

Water discovered in Apollo moon rocks: Scientists have discovered tiny amounts of water in some of the famous moon rocks brought back to Earth by Apollo astronauts.Recently NASA crashed two spacecraft into the moon and orbiters scanned the lunar surface for telltale light signatures.

Through The Lens Of A Space Shuttle Photographer (Pics): Ben Cooper combines photography with rocket science.

The Data behind the Climate Change Fight back (Graphic): Scientists are fighting back over climate change. Get the data behind the latest battle - and see how we visualized it.

Infoporn: Cellphones and the Environment: Few people consider that these small gadgets in our pockets could be causing a lot of damage to the environment. The negative impact of cellphones on the environment can be reduced in some ways, but some of the serious environmental

Google Adds 'Bike There' Feature to Google Maps: Theyve been plugging away for awhile now on ways to get directions for cyclists that avoids hills, excessive traffic, and points you in the best directions for pedaling to your destination. Now its live!

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Science News Online

Magnetic flows cause sunspot lows, study shows: Satellite observations could improve forecasts of future solar cycles

For quantum computer, add a dash of disorder: Flawed crystals could help couple light to matter

Science & the Public: For a lucky few, ‘dioxins’ might be heart healthy: It all boils down to what they received in the genetic lottery

Temporary hearing impairment leads to 'lazy ear': Brain rewiring after ear infections may cause long-term hearing problems, rat study shows

First complete look at families' genes: Genome sequences of parents and children pinpoint disease-causing mutations

Polymer shifts shape with changing temperature: Common materials memory could be exploited for applications

Chicken cells have strong sense of sexual identity: In birds, hormones may not be the last word in determining males and females

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NASA

Spirit's Journey to the Center of Mars: NASAs venerable Mars rover Spirit is starting a second career as an explorer of the Martian core--but first it must survive the deadly Martian winter.

Cool Movie: SDO Destroys a Sundog: NASAs Solar Dynamics Observatory amazed onlookers last week when it flew past a sundog and destroyed it. Must-see videos of the event captured shock waves from the rocket billowing through the sundog, eliciting cries of delight and amazement from the

3D Sun for the iPhone: Imagine holding the entire sun in the palm of your hand. Now you can. A new iPhone app developed by NASA-supported programmers delivers a live global view of the sun directly to your cell phone.

Are TGFs Hazardous to Air Travelers?: Terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) surge through thunderstorms at about the same altitude where commercial airliners fly. Do these blasts of gamma-radiation pose a hazard to air travelers?

Solar Dynamics Observatory: The 'Variable Sun' Mission: The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), slated for liftoff on Feb. 9th, will make IMAX-quality movies of solar explosions, peer beneath the stellar surface to see the suns inner dynamo, and--researchers hope--unravel the mysteries of solar variability.

Hubble Sees Suspected Asteroid Collision: NASAs Hubble Space Telescope has observed a mysterious X-shaped debris pattern and trailing streamers of dust that suggest a head-on collision between two asteroids.

Firefly Mission to Study Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes: Theres a mystery in the skies of Earth: Something is producing bright flashes of gamma radiation in the upper atmosphere of our own planet. A new NASA-NSF mission called Firefly is going to investigate.

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