A minor announcement last week could have some repercussions for NASA down the line. When Nick Lampson won Tom DeLay's former seat in the House in November, many expected him to gain a seat on the powerful appropriations committee, a position from which he could be expected to flight for NASA's budget (while also working to improve his odds of winning reelection in his majority-Republican district in 2008). However, last week the Democratic Steering Committee decided to give a slot on the committee to another Texan, Ciro Rodriguez, a former Congressman who won a runoff election last week over Henry Bonilla. Lampson will instead get a seat on the transportation committee, which will still be beneficial for Lampson, just not for JSC or NASA in general. (It might be useful, though, should incoming transportation committee chairman James Oberstar seek to introduce legislation to further regulate passenger safety on commercial spacecraft; Lampson fought against a similar effort by Oberstar during a debate on the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act late in the 108th Congress.) Read more…

This story was told to me by my house help when I first joined the plantations about twenty five years ago. She was an honest straight forward Malay lady, and I have no reason to suspect that she was not telling the truth. Read more…

This is my proposal to IBM, Sun and Text 100 for use of virtual worlds to imagine better worlds. In the old days imagining the future was a regular routine for a few gurus called futurists such as Alvin Toffler who took in upon themselves to predict how our lives and society would unfold. The tools are there now for us to do it ourselves.Channel: Science Tags: Future Society Virtual World Read more…

Use the zoom slider to zoom in and zoom out and move the red square in the navigation window to view different parts of the Big Picture or just click and drag the image in the main window.Channel: Science Tags: science space photo image Read more…

Top 10 Archaeological Discoveries of 2006Channel: Science Tags: news archeology discoveries science Read more…

At least 1,000 orangutans have been killed in fierce forest fires in Indonesia, hastening the species' headlong rush to extinction within the next decade. Conservationists believe that many were deliberately lit to make room for palm oil plantations - much of it, ironically, to meet the world's growing demand for environmentally friendly fuel.Channel: Science Tags: Orangutan Extinction Indonesia Environment Endangered Read more…

AP - Research on embryonic stem cells continues to ignite national debate over the beginning of human life. And with the Legislature likely to take up the issue in its next session, many worry that inaccurate information is being perpetuated by stem cell proponents and their counterparts. Read more…

AFP - A new species of insect, animal or plant is discovered every month in Borneo, conservation group WWF has said as it warned that logging and plantations threatened the fragile "Heart of Borneo" ecosystem. Read more…

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AP - Scientists hope to learn more about what the Great Lakes' shorelines looked like about 10,000 years ago. They explored a limestone land bridge that went from Alpena to Goderich, Ontario — a distance of about 125 miles — and an underwater forest of petrified trees in Lake Huron. Read more…

AP - The cotton industry is concerned about the discovery of a herbicide-resistant weed that spreads easily, can grow an inch a day even during droughts and could force farmers to return to older growing methods that were harsher on the environment. Read more…

AP - Scientists have discovered at least 52 new species of animals and plants on the southeast Asian island of Borneo since 2005, including a catfish with protruding teeth and suction cups on its belly to help it stick to rocks, WWF International said Tuesday. Read more…

AP - Visitors to one of the world's most active volcanoes are being kept hundreds of feet away from a 55-acre lava delta that authorities believe may soon collapse into the Pacific Ocean. Read more…

PRESS RELEASE Date Released: Monday, December 18, 2006 Source: SpaceDev, Inc. Read more…

PRESS RELEASE Date Released: Monday, December 18, 2006 Source: Lunar Explorer The Virtual Moon Is Already Here Hundreds of people have started "arriving" on the Moon every day RAHWAY, NJ, December 19, 2006 ? It is a challenge these days to find a company more innovative and visionary than Google. Read more…

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PRESS RELEASE Date Released: Monday, December 18, 2006 Source: BCE BCE announces Telesat sale for $3.42 billion MONTREAL, Qu?bec, Dec. 18 2006 -- BCE Inc. Read more…

To help photographers get the perfect shot, an Australian scientist has calculated the number of photos that need to be taken to ensure at least one blink-free photo. Read more…

Powerful forces are exerted on the shoulders of birds where muscles converge. So scientists have wondered why the joints don't dislocate. Read more…

PPARC Industrial Programme Support Scheme (PIPSS) Themed Call for Defence and Security Projects (18 December 2006) Read more…

A new study in Journal of the World Aquaculture Society suggests that, while larger shrimp consistently win over smaller shrimp of the same gender when competing for food, male shrimp will almost always beat female shrimp -- even though adult males of the species are typically much smaller than the adult females of the same age. Read more…

Scientists are reporting discovery of technology that may simplify construction of those much-discussed Micro Total Analysis Systems (micro-TASs) -- "labs-on-a-chip" with whole medical and scientific laboratories shrunk to the size of computer chips. Read more…

In a report in the December issue of PLOS Medicine, a group of researchers from the Partners AIDS Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital report one of the first studies of how HIV infection impacts immune system functions involved with hepatitis C virus control. Their findings suggest that beginning antiretroviral therapy earlier than is generally recommended may help preserve HCV control in patients infected with both viruses. Read more…

Symptoms of heart disease and diabetes usually seen in adults are increasingly being found in adolescents according to a longitudinal study, which suggests that reducing the intake of sugar-sweetened beverages during childhood may lessen the risk of chronic disease in later life. Read more…

An American Museum of Natural History paleontologist and his colleagues have named a new order of mammals based on their description of a fossil of a bat- or squirrel-sized Mesozoic mammal, called Volaticotherium antiquus (meaning "ancient gliding beast"), which was capable of gliding flight. The rock beds that yielded the fossil date to at least 125 million years ago, so the new fossil extends the earliest record for gliding flight in mammals by 70 million years or more and indicates that mammals experimented with gliding flight and aerial life at about the same time that birds first took to the skies, possibly even earlier. Read more…