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	(Sponsor this newsletter) NASA planning for possible spacewalks to fix station cooling system By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Dec 15 (Reuters - Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are preparing for possible spacewalks this week to repair the outpost's failed cooling system, NASA said on Sunday. NASA engineers on Sunday continued to assess options for fixing the valve, said agency spokesman Josh Byerly with the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Meanwhile, space station flight engineers Rick Mastracchio and Michael Hopkins began preparing their spacesuits in case spacewalks were needed to replace the faulty pump, NASA said in a statement posted on its website on Saturday. Read More » Chinese unmanned spacecraft lands on moon By Pete Sweeney SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China landed an unmanned spacecraft on the moon on Saturday, state media reported, in the first such "soft-landing" since 1976, joining the United States and the former Soviet Union in managing to accomplish such a feat. The Chang'e 3, a probe named after a lunar goddess in traditional Chinese mythology, is carrying the solar-powered Yutu, or Jade Rabbit buggy, which will dig and conduct geological surveys. China has been increasingly ambitious in developing its space programs, for military, commercial and scientific purposes. "The dream for lunar exploration once again lights up the China Dream," Xinhua news agency said in a commentary. Read More » Odd Octopus: What It's Like to Be a Clever 8-Armed Creature To learn more about these marvels, LiveScience caught up with Katherine Harmon Courage, a freelance journalist and contributing editor for Scientific American, to talk about her new book "Octopus! The Most Mysterious Creature In the Sea" (Current Hardcover, October 2013).  [8 Amazing Octopus Abilities] That could obviously be used in the military for light and color, but also for things like radar and sonar, so instead of just disappearing under the sonar signal, [the material] could actually become invisible by reemitting the sonar. Read More » Smart Grids Could Fix Decrepit US Power Grid And because so much of modern life relies on electricity, failures in the aging U.S. electric grid threaten to plunge parts of the country into darkness on a continuing basis. A number of experts, however, believe the solution is at hand: a smart grid. The term "smart grid" is a catchall phrase for an electrical grid that's integrated with a computerized, two-way communication network. Unlike the prevailing, older electrical grid that only sends electrical power one way — from a power plant to homes and offices — a smart grid also sends instantaneous feedback on power interruptions and electrical use, information that goes back to system operators. Read More » Water Geysers on Jupiter Moon Europa May Boost Support for Life-Hunting Mission SAN FRANCISCO — The apparent discovery of water geysers on Jupiter's moon Europa makes the icy body an even more attractive target for a life-hunting mission, researchers say. The ice-covered moon is thought to contain a subsurface ocean of liquid water, and the geysers represent a way to sample this potentially life-supporting environment, NASA officials said. "Indeed, the plumes are incredibly exciting, if they are there," Jim Green, head of NASA's planetary science division, said here Thursday at the at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union. The new find, made using observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, could build some momentum for a mission concept the space agency is developing called the Europa Clipper. Read More » Raw Milk: Pregnant Women & Infants Shouldn't Drink It, Pediatricians Say Pregnant women, infants and children who drink raw milk are at particularly high risk of developing serious, life-threatening illnesses, said a leading U.S. group of pediatricians. People should consume only pasteurized milk, the American Academy of Pediatrics said in a new policy statement, reaffirming its position on the issue. Pregnant women who drink raw milk may face a fivefold increase in risk of the parasite infection toxoplasmosis, the doctors' group said; and infection with bacteria called Listeria, which are also found in raw milk, has been linked with high rates of stillbirths, preterm delivery, as well as sepsis and meningitis in the newborns, said the AAP researchers who reviewed studies on the risks of raw milk consumption. Read More » Lundbeck hopes to launch new Alzheimer's drug in 2017 By Shida Chayesteh COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish pharmaceutical group Lundbeck said on Monday that it hopes to launch a new Alzheimer's medicine in 2017 in what would be the first new drug for the condition in more than a decade. Dementia - of which Alzheimer's disease is the most common form - already affects 44 million people worldwide and is set to reach 135 million by 2050, according to non-profit campaign group Alzheimer's Disease International. There is currently no treatment that can cure the disease or slow its progression, but Lundbeck's new drug - known as Lu AE58054 - is designed to alleviate some of the symptoms and improve cognitive function. As such, it would build on treatments currently on the market rather than competing with more ambitious projects under way at large drug companies, which aim to modify the biology of the disease. Read More » Gaping Maw of Aquatic Killer Wins Micro-Photo Competition Igor Siwanowicz, a neurobiologist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Farm Research Campus, took the winning image of the floating carnivorous plant, called the humped bladderwort (Utricularia gibba). For his photo, Siwanowicz colored the cells of the bladderwort with the cellulose-binding fluorescent dye Calcofluor and then magnified the subject 100 times using a laser scanning confocal microscope. Highlighted in the image are the single-celled green algae that call the trap home and the trigger hairs sprouting from the center of the bladderwort's dome-shaped trap. Read More » Iran Says It Launched a Second Monkey Into Space (Video) Iran has successfully launched a monkey into space for the second time on Saturday (Dec. 14) and returned it safely to Earth after a 15-minute rocket ride, according to Iranian officials. Iran's space monkey — named Fargam — launched 74.5 miles (120 kilometers) above Earth's surface atop a liquid fueled rocket, according to a report from the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency in Iran. The mission was announced by the office of Iran President Hassan Rouhani. "The President also congratulated the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Iranian nation on the significant achievement. Read More » Antibacterial Soap: FDA Proposes New Requirements for Manufacturers Out of concern that antibacterial soaps may pose more risks than benefits, the Food and Drug Administration has issued a proposal that would require makers of such soaps to show that their products really work, and are safe to use. Under the proposal, which still needs to be finalized, manufacturers of antibacterial soaps and body washes would need to prove that their products can be used safely on a daily basis, and that they are more effective than plain soap and water at preventing the transmission of infections, the FDA said. If manufacturers cannot demonstrate this, the products would need to be reformulated to remove certain antibacterial chemicals, or be relabeled without their antibacterial claim, the FDA said. Although millions of Americans use antibacterial soaps, there is no evidence that these products are more effective than regular soap at preventing illness, the FDA said. Read More » 'Baby Illusion' Makes Family's Youngest Seem Tiny "Contrary to what many may think, this isn't happening just because the older child just looks so big compared to a baby," Jordy Kaufman of the Swinburne University of Technology in Australia said in a statement. "It actually happens because all along, the parents were under an illusion that their first child was smaller than he or she really was. Read More » The Cassava Express: 1st Antarctica Atmospheric River Found SAN FRANCISCO — A wild weather phenomenon that causes massive winter flooding in California also dumps snow in East Antarctica, wetting one of the driest places on Earth, researchers said here Thursday (Dec. 12) at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union California weather forecasters call them the "Pineapple Express," known for transporting tropical moisture from Hawaii to the West Coast during winter. But the weather pattern can appear any time of the year, and atmospheric rivers have been spotted dropping rain and snow in Europe and even in the Arctic. Researcher Maria Tsukernik and her colleagues discovered Antarctica's atmospheric rivers because of incredibly high snowfall recorded May 19, 2009, at a weather station in East Antarctica's Dronning Maud Land. Read More »
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