|  Tiny 'Robot Dragonfly' Dodges Obstacles Midair, On Its Own  | Engineers at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands developed the small drone equipped with transparent wings and a special vision system that enables it to perceive objects in its path. The so-called DelFly Explorer is a Micro Air Vehicle, which is a class of small, insectlike aerial drones that are used for research, commercial, military and commercial purposes. The DelFly Explorer is the first Micro Air Vehicle to fly and avoid obstacles autonomously, according to Guido de Croon, an assistant professor in the Micro Air Vehicle Lab at Delft University of Technology. The ultra-lightweight DelFly Explorer weighs only 0.7 ounces (20 grams), which is equivalent to just a few sheets of paper.
| Read More » Long-Lost Nazi Diary Transferred to Holocaust Museum  | Missing for decades, the rediscovered diary of Alfred Rosenberg — a chief Nazi ideologue and one of Adolf Hitler's closest confidants — was officially turned over to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., Tuesday (Dec. 17). Under Hitler, Rosenberg led the Nazi party's foreign affairs department and served as the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories. it was used as evidence in the Nuremberg trials — in which major political and military leaders in Nazi Germany were tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity — some of the papers were published and parts of the diary are even in the collection of the U.S. National Archives. The German-born American lawyer Robert Kempner, who served as a prosecutor during the Nuremberg trials, brought the diary to the United States.
| Read More » 5 Myths About the Light Bulb Ban When the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) was signed into law in 2007, among its provisions was the eventual phasing out of an icon of 20th-century life: the familiar (but notoriously inefficient) incandescent light bulb, which wastes 90 percent of its energy use as heat, not light. Myth 3: Consumers will lose money buying expensive new light bulbs. Read More » Expedition Explores Underwater 'Grand Canyon'  | A five-week expedition to map and sample a giant underwater canyon off the northwest coast of Morocco has completed its mission, yielding the best look yet at the deep-sea wonder. More than half a mile (about 1 kilometer) deep, 280 miles (450 km) long and up to 20 miles (30 km) wide, Agadir Canyon is approximately the size of the Grand Canyon. Up until now, Agadir Canyon, considered by some measures the world's largest undersea canyon, has rarely been explored, said British expedition leader Russell Wynn of the National Oceanography Centre in England. "There are a lot of interesting features that no one has ever gone and looked at," Wynn told LiveScience's OurAmazingPlanet.
| Read More » December US Snow Pack Largest in a Decade  | Earlier this week, snow covered more than half of the continental United States, the highest this measure has reached for this date in a decade, according to government scientists. As of Dec. 15, the white, fluffy stuff covered 53 percent of the lower 48, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported. The average monthly temperature in the continental United States in November was 0.3 degrees Fahrenheit (0.2 degrees Celsius), which is below the 20th century average, Climate Central noted. "With the noteworthy exception of Alaska, nearly every state was affected by the unusually cold air at some point during the November-to-December timeframe, with temperatures dipping down to at least minus 43 [degrees] F (minus 42 C) in Montana on Dec. 8, and running 10 to 20 [degrees] F (5.5 to 11 C) below average elsewhere," Climate Central reported.
| Read More » Stunning Photo: Mount Etna's Lava Snakes Through Snow  | Winter brings cooling snows to Italy's fiery Mount Etna, where tourists flock to ski resorts below the volcano's belching craters.
| Read More » NASA Moon Probe Eyeing Chinese Lunar Lander from Orbit  | A sharp-eyed NASA spacecraft is keeping tabs on China's recently arrived lunar lander, all in the name of science. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has added China's Chang'e 3 lander and associated rover — which touched down on the moon on Saturday (Dec. 14) — to its list of observation targets. "Repeated imaging of the landing site by LROC [the LRO Camera] will allow for detailed measurements of changes to the surface caused by the landing and movement of the Chang'e 3 rover," NASA officials wrote in a statement on Friday (Dec. 13). "The resulting atmospheric and surface changes will provide LRO with a new scientific opportunity to observe the transport of gases on the moon and the effects of local disturbances on the lunar regolith."
| Read More » Brains Hardwired to Accept Celebrity Health Advice What drives people to trust the health advice of celebrities, even though most of these individuals clearly have no medical background, and even tough their advice often goes against convention and logic? Humans' gray matter is hardwired to trust celebrities, according to researchers at McMaster University in Ontario. Celebrities can play an important role in educating the public about health issues, said Steven Hoffman, assistant professor of clinical epidemiology and biostatistics at McMaster University's DeGroote School of Medicine, and lead author on the report. Such celebrities do a world of good, Hoffman said. Read More » NASA Plans 3 Spacewalks to Fix Space Station, Delaying Private Cargo Launch  | A problem with the International Space Station's cooling system will require a series of spacewalks to fix, pushing the planned Thursday (Dec. 19) launch of a private cargo spacecraft into next month. NASA has decided that three spacewalks — one each on Dec. 21, Dec. 23 and Dec. 25 — will be necessary to replace a faulty pump module on the orbiting lab. The holiday spacewalks will postpone the first contracted cargo mission of aerospace firm Orbital Sciences' unmanned Cygnus spacecraft until mid-January at the earliest, NASA officials announced today (Dec. 17). You can watch coverage of the extravehicular activities here on SPACE.com beginning each day at 6:15 a.m. EST, courtesy of NASA TV. "NASA astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins will remove a pump module that has a failed valve.
| Read More » 'Virgin Births' Reveal Problems with Health Surveys  | Of the nearly 8,000 women in the study who were interviewed confidentially and multiple times for 14 years, 5,340 women reported a pregnancy, and 45 (0.8 percent) of those who reported pregnancies also reported being a virgin. "Our first thought was that we had made a programming error," said study researcher Amy Herring, a professor of biostatistics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A number of participants had indicated the date of their first sexual intercourse and the date of their pregnancy in a way that it meant they had given birth before having had sex. Instead, they answered a series of questions on pregnancy history and a separate series of questions on vaginal intercourse," Herring said.
| Read More » Celestial Holiday Wreath Shines in New Hubble Photo  | With Christmas approaching, it's time again for eggnog and gift-giving and space photos of celestial ornaments, hanging thousands of light-years away. The Hubble Space Telescope snapped this image, released by NASA Tuesday (Dec. 17), showing a huge star sending "light echoes" into the dust that surrounds it like a twinkling wreath. The giant star at the center of the image is RS Puppis, which is 200 times larger than our sun and can be seen in the Southern Hemisphere sky. Cepheid variable stars expand and shrink in a rhythmic pattern, growing brighter and then dimmer over a regular period of days or weeks, as this time-lapse video shows.
| Read More » Eye Cells Inkjet-Printed for First Time  | The demonstration is a step toward producing tissue implants that could cure some types of blindness. Scientists have previously printed embryonic stem cells and other immature cells. The loss of nerve cells in the retina causes many eye diseases that lead to blindness, said Dr. Keith Martin, a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Cambridge, in England, and co-author of the study detailed online today (Dec. 17) in the journal Biofabrication. The work is preliminary, but eventually, the aim is to be able to print a replacement retina, Martin told LiveScience.
| Read More » ADHD Meds Can Cause Long-Lasting Erections Medicines that are typically used to treat attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may have a painful side effect: long-lasting erections, according to new data. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned consumers today (Dec. 17) that ADHD medications containing the active ingredient methylphenidate — which includes common drugs such as Ritalin and Concerta — can cause erections that last more than four hours. People taking methylphenidate who develop long-lasting erections should seek immediate medical treatment to prevent long-term problems with the penis, the FDA said. Priapism can lead to permanent damage to the penis if the condition isn't treated. The FDA has received 15 reports of priapism in those taking drugs with methylphenidate from 1997 through 2012 through an adverse reporting system. Read More » Mock Mars Mission: How Science on Earth Can Help Build Martian Colony  | If a solar flare is on its way to the Mars Desert Research Station in January, Joseph Jessup wants to make sure Crew 133 is prepared to react if necessary. That's why he's driving from Arizona to the Mars Society facility in Utah with a radio telescope in the back of his car. His portable telescope can not only detect solar particles at a range of 20 megahertz, but at night (after the sun has set) could be turned to Jupiter to spot electromagnetic radiation emanating from the immense planet. Utah, of course, is safely underneath Earth's atmosphere, but the research would have applications for a future Mars colony.
| Read More » Organic Material Found Trapped in Ancient Meteorite-Formed Glass  | Scientists have found organics from Earth's swamp trapped inside of glass created by a meteor impact almost a million years ago. Though the impact glass was found on Earth, scientists say that similar samples could have been thrown into space by this or other blasts, allowing organics to be transported from one planet to another. As it slammed into the Earth, temperatures exceeded 1,700 degrees Celsius (3,100 degrees Fahrenheit), melting rock and creating glass sphericals, as well as a quarter-mile wide hole known as the Darwin Crater. "The reason the glass is so abundant seems likely to relate to the presence of volatiles like water at the surface when the impact occurred," lead author Kieren Howard of the City University of New York told Astrobiology by email.
| Read More » Inscriptions Everywhere! Magical Medieval Crypt Holds 7 Male Mummies  | A 900-year-old medieval crypt, containing seven naturally mummified bodies and walls covered with inscriptions, has been excavated in a monastery at Old Dongola, the capital of a lost medieval kingdom that flourished in the Nile Valley. Old Dongola is located in modern-day Sudan, and 900 years ago, it was the capital of Makuria, a Christian kingdom that lived in peace with its Islamic neighbor to the north. The inscriptions on the walls of the crypt, inscribed with black ink on a thin layer of whitewash (paint), were written in Greek and Sahidic Coptic. The inscriptions, written by "Ioannes," who left a signature on three and possibly four of the walls, likely served as protection for the deceased against evil powers, the researchers said.
| Read More » Jupiter and Moon Meet Up in Night Sky Tonight  | This cosmic companion is not a star, but the largest planet in our solar system: Jupiter. Jupiter currently blazes at negative 2.7 magnitude, meaning that it is three times brighter than Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. It looks quite different from Jupiter. In fact, Jupiter will be exactlyopposite to the sun in our sky.
| Read More » Smart Snowplows Aim to Make White Winters Safer  | In a push to save money and lives this winter, four U.S. states are dispatching smart snowplows to gather road and weather conditions in almost real-time. The system integrates GPS-coded measurements from sensors on the snowplows with computer weather models and satellite and radar observations to produce updates every five to 15 minutes about road and weather conditions. These detailed, close to real-time snapshots are then relayed to transportation officials in the hope that they will be able to target the most dangerous stretches of highway before accidents happen. "We want to reduce that white-knuckle experience of suddenly skidding on ice," scientist Sheldon Drobot, who oversees the design of the system at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., said in a statement.
| Read More » Dutch Rock Is Long-Lost Meteorite  | A hunk of rock found in a private collection is a rare meteorite, researchers have announced. The brown-black rock, which is small enough to fit in the palm of a hand, plummeted to Earth with a flash of light and a hissing sound on Oct. 27, 1873. It landed in a field near the Dutch village of Diepenveen. But the tale of this space rock didn't come to light until 2012, when an amateur astronomer named Henk Nieuwenhuis came across it in the collections of a "Mrs. L. Kiers," according to the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, a museum in Leiden, Netherlands, which now has custody of the meteorite.
| Read More » Lasers Could Help Protect Polar-Bear Dens from Oil Drilling  | Polar-bear dens, where mama bears raise young cubs during the harsh Alaska winters, could be identified using laser technology, new research suggests. Remotely tracking dens using lidar, an advanced laser technology, can reveal 90 to 95 percent of the dens — a great improvement over past methods, a small pilot study shows. Knowing where the polar bears rear their young could help protect them from the dangers posed by oil and gas drilling, and could also reveal how the landscape shifts in response to climate change, according to the study, presented Friday (Dec. 13) at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. "A lot of oil and gas exploration happens in the winter — that's when bears are in their dens, rearing their young," said study co-author Benjamin Jones, a research geographer with the U.S. Geological Survey Alaska Science Center.
| Read More » Deepest Earthquakes May Be Best at Dissipating Energy  | Scientists investigated a magnitude-8.3 earthquake that struck beneath the Sea of Okhotsk, between Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula and Japan, on May 24. The Sea of Okhotsk rests above a subduction zone, a place where one of the Earth's tectonic plates slides beneath another. After investigating seismic waves observed during the earthquake in the Sea of Okhotsk, the researchers found the initial quake triggered four other powerful shocks, one of magnitude 7.8, one of magnitude 8.0 and two of magnitude 7.9. The scientists calculated that the pressure front from the initial earthquake sped outward at about 9,000 mph (14,400 kph), which set off three of the four shocks in a line south of the initial quake.
| Read More » Antarctica may have a new type of ice - diamonds By Environment Correspondent Alister Doyle OSLO (Reuters) - A kind of rock that often contains diamonds has been found in Antarctica for the first time, hinting at mineral riches in the vast, icy continent where mining is banned. "It would be very surprising if there weren't diamonds in these kimberlites," Greg Yaxley of the Australian National University in Canberra, who led the research, said in a telephone interview. Writing in the journal Nature Communications, an Australian-led team reported finding the kimberlite deposits around Mount Meredith, in the Prince Charles Mountains in East Antarctica. Kimberlite is a rare rock where diamonds are often found; Read More » Trio of spacewalks planned to fix space station's cooling system  | By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Astronauts aboard the International Space Station will begin a series of spacewalks this weekend to repair the orbital outpost's cooling system, delaying a cargo resupply flight until January, NASA said on Tuesday. The six-member crew was not in any danger, NASA said. But by Tuesday afternoon, with the cooling system still down, the U.S. space agency decided to have two astronauts aboard the station replace the pump with a spare. Three spacewalks are planned to complete the work, the first of which is scheduled for Saturday by station flight engineers Rick Mastracchio and Michael Hopkins.
| Read More » Sparkling Discovery: Antarctica May Contain Diamonds  | Antarctica might have a new kind of ice — diamonds might exist there, a new study finds, Diamonds form under the immense heat and pressure found nearly 100 miles (160 kilometers) below Earth's surface, in the planet's mantle layer, which is sandwiched between the outer crust and the core. Powerful volcanic eruptions bring these precious stones to Earth's surface, where they are embedded in blue-tinged rocks known as kimberlites. Kimberlites can range from 10,000 to 2.1 billion years in age, and can have the deepest sources of any rocks on Earth's surface.
| Read More » Ancient Roman Metal Used for Physics Experiments Ignites Science Feud Ancient Roman Metal Used for Physics Experiments Ignites Science Feud Read More » Mountains Crumbled When Earth Cooled  | A big chill 2 million years ago bred glaciers that scoured mountains across the planet, pouring trillions of tons of muck into the oceans, researchers said today (Dec. 18) in a study published in the journal Nature. "We really see the ability of climate to quite dramatically change erosion rates on the surface of the planet," said Frédéric Herman, a geologist at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. When Earth entered a global freeze-thaw cycle starting 6 million years ago, huge pulses of sand and mud started appearing in sediment cores drilled from seafloor — a possible sign that glaciers were suddenly grinding down continents. Researchers are also intrigued by the link between glaciations and a burst in erosion because atmospheric carbon dioxide rises and falls with the waxing and waning of the ice ages, especially starting about 2.7 million years ago.
| Read More » Neanderthal Woman's Genome Reveals Unknown Human Lineage  | The existence of a mysterious ancient human lineage and the genetic changes that separate modern humans from their closest extinct relatives are among the many secrets now revealed in the first high-quality genome sequence from a Neanderthal woman, researchers say. Although modern humans are the world's only surviving human lineage, others also once lived on Earth. These included Neanderthals, the closest extinct relatives of modern humans, and the relatively newfound Denisovans, whose genetic footprint apparently extended from Siberia to the Pacific islands of Oceania. Both Neanderthals and Denisovans descended from a group that diverged from the ancestors of all modern humans.
| Read More » 10 Scientists Who Made a Difference in 2013  | Whether it was developing stem cells from cloned human embryos or tracking down assault claims at archaeological field sites, scientists and people advocating science had a busy 2013. To highlight some of these accomplishments, editors at the journal Nature selected 10 scientists and other people who they said made a difference in 2013. Certain kinds of bacteria can slash the DNA in viruses for protection, leading researchers — such as neuroscientist Feng Zhang, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — to wonder whether similar DNA-nip-and-cut techniques could have applications in humans. In January, Zhang co-authored a paper published in Science (led by one of his graduate students, Le Cong), showing that their alteration process works in higher-level eukaryotic cells, which are found in plants and animals.
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