Science
Freaky Fungi Glow in the Dark (LiveScience.com)
LiveScience.com - This Behind the Scenes article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation. Read more…
137 dead, missing after storms hit northern Vietnam (AFP)
AFP - At least 137 people were dead or missing in mountainous northern Vietnam on Sunday after heavy rains brought by tropical storm Kammuri triggered widespread flash floods and landslides. Read more…
Not just guns: Gazans smuggle lions into zoo (AP)
AP - The monkeys and lions were drugged, tossed into cloth sacks and dragged through smuggling tunnels under the border between Egypt and the besieged Gaza Strip before ending up in a dusty Gaza zoo. Stocked almost entirely with smuggled animals, the "Heaven of Birds and Animals Zoo" is a sign of Gaza's ever-expanding tunnel industry. Read more…
Poland to open museum for cousin of T-Rex (Reuters)
Reuters - Poland opens a museum on Thursday to exhibit the remains of a previously unknown dinosaur, an ancestor of Tyrannosaurus Rex, which have attracted scientists from around the world to this small southern village. Read more…
Algeria suicide car bomb kills 6, injures 18 (Reuters)
Reuters - A suicide car bomb attack on security forces killed at least six civilians east of Algiers late on Saturday, the second such blast this month, authorities in OPEC member Algeria said on Sunday. Read more…
Cloned puppies may have exposed 31-year mystery (AP)
AP - A woman who made news around the world when she had five pups cloned from her beloved pit bull Booger looked very familiar to some who saw her picture: She's the same woman who 31 years earlier was accused of abducting a Mormon missionary in England, handcuffing him to a bed and making him her sex slave. Read more…
Success! NASA Spacecraft Confirms Martian Water
Above is a graphic of the tweet from the Mars Phoenix Twitter that water had been confirmed on the surface of the planet Mars. NASA also reported on its website that the NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has confirmed water in a soil sample on Mars. The Phoenix Mars Lander has instruments that allow it to heat up soil samples and then identify the vapors that these heated samples produce. Laboratory tests aboard NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander have identified water in a soil sample. The lander's robotic arm delivered the sample Wednesday to an instrument that identifies vapors produced by the heating of samples. "We have water," said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA. "We've seen evidence for this water ice before in observations by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix last month, but this is the first time Martian water has been touched and tasted." With enticing results so far and the spacecraft in good shape, NASA also announced operational funding for the mission will extend through Sept. 30. The original prime mission of three months ends in late August. The mission extension adds five weeks to the 90 days of the prime mission. "Phoenix is healthy and the projections for solar power look good, so we want to take full advantage of having this resource in one of the most interesting locations on Mars," said Michael Meyer, chief scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The soil sample came from a trench approximately 2 inches deep. When the robotic arm first reached that depth, it hit a hard layer of frozen soil. Two attempts to deliver samples of icy soil on days when fresh material was exposed were foiled when the samples became stuck inside the scoop. Most of the material in Wednesday's sample had been exposed to the air for two days, letting some of the water in the sample vaporize away and making the soil easier to handle. "Mars is giving us some surprises," said Phoenix principal investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona. "We're excited because surprises are where discoveries come from. One surprise is how the soil is behaving. The ice-rich layers stick to the scoop when poised in the sun above the deck, different from what we expected from all the Mars simulation testing we've done. That has presented challenges for delivering samples, but we're finding ways to work with it and we're gathering lots of information to help us understand this soil." NASA's news release also says the Phoenix Mars Rover's mission has been extended through September 30th. Permalink | Recent Headlines | News Feeds Read more…
Robot Jumps Over Objects
ScoutRobot is a wheeled robot that has the ability to jump over objects. ScoutRobot can sense how high the obstacle is in front of it and then jump high enough to clear the obstacle. The reason the robot appears to float is because it is literally floating on air. ScoutRobot has an aluminum cylinder powered by compressed air that is stored in two plastic bottles. New Scientist says one limitation of the robot is that ScoutRobot has no idea what it is on the other side of whatever it is jumping over. If ScoutRobot were to jump into a puddle of mud or water it might then be unable to get out. Find more about ScoutRobot at Gearfuse. Permalink | Recent Headlines | News Feeds Read more…
Invasive species bills stuck in Congress (AP)
AP - Tiny foreign mussels assault drinking water sources in California and Nevada. A deadly fish virus spreads swiftly through the Great Lakes and beyond. Japanese shore crabs make a home for themselves in Long Island Sound, more than 6,000 miles away. Read more…
FBI investigates new attacks on Calif. scientists (AP)
AP - The FBI is investigating two bombings that targeted university scientists, the latest in a rash of attacks against biomedical researchers who experiment on animals, authorities say. Read more…
