Today's Reuters Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News:
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Scientists test new marine robot hurricane-hunters
Fri,31 Aug 2012 04:34 PM PDT
Reuters -  (Reuters) - As Tropical Storm Isaac was on its path through the Caribbean before becoming a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico this week, U.S. scientists were testing an experimental new weather spy tool - an unmanned, marine robot about the size of a surfboard that can gather storm data at sea level. A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)research laboratory in Miami sent the "Wave Glider," a floating platform of sensors with an underwater stabilizer christened Alex, into ocean waters about 100 miles north of Puerto Rico last week to try to intercept Isaac. ...
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Spineless creatures under threat, from worms to bees: study
Fri,31 Aug 2012 06:20 AM PDT
Reuters -  OSLO (Reuters) - The vital tasks carried out by tiny "engineers" like earthworms that recycle waste and bees that pollinate crops are under threat because one fifth of the world's spineless creatures may be at risk of extinction, a study showed on Friday. The rising human population is putting ever more pressure on the "spineless creatures that rule the world" including slugs, spiders, jellyfish, lobsters, corals, and bugs such as beetles and butterflies, it said. ...
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First man on moon Neil Armstrong dead at 82
Thu,30 Aug 2012 11:15 PM PDT
Reuters -  (Reuters) - U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong, who took a giant leap for mankind when he became the first person to walk on the moon, has died at the age of 82, his family said on Saturday. Armstrong died following complications from heart-bypass surgery he underwent earlier this month, the family said in a statement, just two days after his birthday on August 5. As commander of the Apollo 11 mission, Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969. As he stepped on the dusty surface, Armstrong said: ""That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind. ...
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Stuck bolt on space station stymies spacewalkers
Thu,30 Aug 2012 04:34 PM PDT
Reuters -  CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA on Thursday halted attempts to replace a power distributor on the International Space Station after spacewalking astronauts were repeatedly stymied by a jammed bolt, officials said. NASA astronaut Sunita Williams and Japan's Akihiko Hoshide, both station flight engineers, had planned to spend 6.5 hours outside the orbital outpost to work on its power system and install electrical cables for a new Russian module expected to arrive next year. ...
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Rocket blasts off, puts NASA radiation belt probes in orbit
Thu,30 Aug 2012 04:42 AM PDT
Reuters -  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., August 30 - An unmanned Atlas 5 rocket lifted off on Thursday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, placing a pair of heavily shielded NASA science satellites into position to study Earth's radiation belts. The 190-foot (58-meter) tall rocket, built by United Launch Alliance, blasted off at 4:05 a.m. EDT (0805 GMT), soaring out over the Atlantic Ocean toward an orbit as far as 19,042 miles above the planet's surface. ...
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"Little flash" as bionic eye brings amazed woman some sight
Wed,29 Aug 2012 11:41 PM PDT
Reuters -  SYDNEY (Reuters) - A bionic eye has given an Australian woman partial sight and researchers say it is an important step towards eventually helping visually impaired people get around independently. Dianne Ashworth, who has severe vision loss due to the inherited condition retinitis pigmentosa, was fitted with a prototype bionic eye in May at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital. It was switched on a month later. "All of a sudden I could see a little flash ... it was amazing," she said in a statement. ...
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Planet has two parent stars and a sibling, NASA telescope finds
Wed,29 Aug 2012 02:24 PM PDT
Reuters -  CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - In a dazzling and previously undetected display of orbital dynamics, two planets beyond the solar system have been found circling a pair of stars, scientists using NASA's Kepler space telescope said on Wednesday. Unlike single planets orbiting single stars, the planets in the Kepler-47 system, located about 5,000 light years away in the constellation Cygnus, are flying around a "moving target," San Diego State University astronomer Jerome Orosz said in a paper published in this week's Science magazine. ...
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Newly discovered dust-obscured galaxies may be missing link
Wed,29 Aug 2012 01:54 PM PDT
Reuters -  CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Scientists on Wednesday unveiled a new species in the cosmic zoo, a super-heated, dust-shrouded object called a "hot DOG," which may represent a missing link in galaxy evolution. A full-sky survey by NASA's wide-field infrared WISE telescope turned up about 1,000 hot, dust-obscured galaxies, or hot DOGs, each of which pump out as much light as 100 trillion sun-like stars. The objects are rare, accounting for about one in 100,000 light sources, and difficult to find since most of their energy is masked by dust. ...
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Postcards from Mars show rover's key science targets
Tue,28 Aug 2012 06:20 AM PDT
Reuters -  CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA on Monday showed off the first high-resolution, color portrait images taken by the Mars rover Curiosity, detailing a mound of layered rock where scientists plan to focus their search for the chemical ingredients of life on the Red Planet. The stunning images reveal distinct tiers near the base of the 3-mile- (5-km-)tall mountain that rises from the floor of the vast, ancient impact basin known as Gale Crater, where Curiosity landed on August 6 to begin its two-year mission. ...
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Bill Nye the Science Guy says creationism not good for kids
Mon,27 Aug 2012 10:01 PM PDT
Reuters -  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Scientist and children's television personality Bill Nye, in a newly released online video, panned biblical creationism and implored American parents who reject the scientific theory of evolution not to teach their beliefs to their youngsters. "I say to the grownups, 'If you want to deny evolution and live in your world that's completely inconsistent with everything we've observed in the universe that's fine. But don't make your kids do it,'" said Nye, best known as host of the educational TV series "Bill Nye the Science Guy. ...
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Factbox: Reaction to death of U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong
Mon,27 Aug 2012 06:57 AM PDT
Reuters - (Reuters) - U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, has died at age 82, his family said Saturday. Following are reactions to the death of the Ohio native, who had undergone heart bypass surgery in early August. * U.S. President Barack Obama: "Neil was among the greatest of American heroes - not just of his time, but of all time. ... "Today, Neil's spirit of discovery lives on in all the men and women who have devoted their lives to exploring the unknown - including those who are ensuring that we reach higher and go further in space. ... Full Story | Top |
Factbox: U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon
Mon,27 Aug 2012 06:57 AM PDT
Reuters - (Reuters) - Facts about former U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, who has died at the age of 82, according to U.S. media: * Armstrong grew up in Ohio with a strong interest in flight and earned his pilot's license while still a boy. * After flying combat missions during the Korean War, he became a test pilot and joined NASA's astronaut program in 1962. * As he stepped on the moon's dusty surface, Armstrong said: ""That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind. ... Full Story | Top |
Canada extends search for doomed 1845-46 Arctic expedition
Thu,23 Aug 2012 02:27 PM PDT
Reuters - OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Canadian government said on Thursday it was extending its four-year search for two ships from the 1845-46 Franklin expedition to the Arctic, an ill-fated journey that may have led to cannibalism among the desperate crew. Divers and archeologists have been trying since 2008 to find the British ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, which were seeking the fabled Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans when they became stuck in ice. Sir John Franklin and his 128-member crew all died and the ships vanished. ... Full Story | Top |
Spaceship builder setting up shop in Florida
Thu,23 Aug 2012 10:32 AM PDT
Reuters - CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Aug 23 - XCOR Aerospace, one of a handful of U.S. firms developing suborbital spaceships, plans to build its vehicles and fly tourists, researchers and commercial payloads from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, officials announced on Thursday. The privately owned firm, currently based in Mojave, California, is developing a two-seat suborbital space plane called Lynx that is expected to debut by early 2013. The company expects to fly four times daily, at a cost of $95,000 per person. ... Full Story | Top |
Mars rover Curiosity aces first test drive
Wed,22 Aug 2012 06:10 PM PDT
Reuters -  CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA's Mars rover Curiosity took a 16-minute drive on Wednesday, its first since reaching the Red Planet to search for habitats that could have supported microbial life. The $2.5-billion, two-year mission, NASA's first astrobiology initiative since the 1970s-era Viking probes, kicked off on August 6, with a risky, but successful landing on at a site NASA has named "Bradbury Landing," a nod to the late science fiction author and space aficionado Ray Bradbury. ...
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