Astronomers have upgraded a distant rock discovered in 2005 to the category of dwarf planet, the controversial designation created two years ago by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to deal with planetlike bodies far out in the solar system...
NASA visitors boldly go; Italian cyclist booted for doping; Tattoos tattle on problem prisoners; Solar-powered racing cars; Grunting fish; and more...
Problems are mounting for the Orion spacecraft that is supposed to replace the retiring space shuttle fleet and carry U.S. astronauts to the moon by 2020. Among the most severe, according to a 117-page internal NASA report posted on Nasawatch.com this week: an $80-million overrun on development of a single motor; a hard-to-open hatch door; and the potential that the stack (craft and Ares 1 rocket) will vibrate itself to pieces during takeoff...
Next time you're at a loud singles bar, thank a fish for inspiration. Here's why: When a male midshipman fish [ above ] eyes a competitor swimming too close, he chases off the interloper with an audible grunt...
A proposed two-dimensional cloak disguises itself, but there's a catch
If you're ever injured on a spacecraft, don't worry: hospitals already have a code to enter on your chart—it's ICD-E845.0. Unless, that is, you happened to be weightless at the time...
Distant quasars shine light on ancient magnetic fields
Q&A with movement researcher E. Paul Zehr
Killer hot peppers; Straightening kids' spines; Netting mosquitoes; Retiring the shuttle; and more...
NASA has set target launch dates for the final eight space shuttle flights before the program is mothballed in 2010. That makes a total of 10 flights between now and retirement: one mission in October to upgrade and repair the Hubble Space Telescope, followed by nine more to finish assembly of the International Space Station (ISS), starting in November with a mission to repair faulty rotary joints in the station's movable solar panels...
It took 10 years, but Merriam-Webster has finally recognized "dark energy," adding the term—used to describe the perplexing force that is causing galaxies to accelerate away from one another—to some 100 other new dictionary entries this year...
Billionaire capitalist irked some scientists in his quest for answers to "Big Questions"
The early moon wasn't such a dry place after all
Ecology -- Oncology -- Immunology -- Privacy
The jets behind the bursts may need rethinking
Spending bill solves current budget crisis. But what about next year?
A new chameleon species has what may be the briefest, oddest life cycle of any four-legged animal. Researchers were puzzled to find during repeated trips to southwestern Madagascar, home to Labord's chameleon ( Furcifer labordi ), that the lizards quickly went from adulthood to dead, with no juveniles or other stragglers...
Less than a month after entering orbit, NASA's Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) is powered up and ready to go. Project scientists at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in California have begun receiving data from the satellite's Large Area Telescope, one of two instruments it will use to scan the sky for energetic gamma rays, the space agency reported today...
Cracks in the planet's crust imply a contracting world
West Nile is back; Chameleons live the fast life; The world is becoming happier; and more. . .
