|  SpaceX Launch of DSCOVR Space Weather Satellite Delayed by Radar Glitch  | The spaceflight company SpaceX aborted the planned launch of a long-awaited space weather satellite on Sunday, as well as a novel rocket landing test, due to problems with a U.S. Air Force ground radar tracking system. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was less than 3 minutes from launching the Deep Space Climate Observatory into the sunset sky above Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida when the radar issue forced the delay. "Air Force tracking radar went down. Launch postponed to same time tomorrow," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote on Twitter after the delay.
| Read More » How Would the World Change If We Found Alien Life?  | How extraterrestrial life would change our world view is a research interest of Steven Dick, who just completed a term as the Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair of Astrobiology. The chair is jointly sponsored by the NASA Astrobiology Program and the John W. Kluge Center, at the Library of Congress. Dick is a former astronomer and historian at the United States Naval Observatory, a past chief historian for NASA, and has published several books concerning the discovery of life beyond Earth. "If we found microbes, it would have an effect on science, especially biology, by universalizing biology," he said.
| Read More » Human Cadavers Provide New Skin for Chronic Wounds Human skin from cadavers that has had its cells removed can help treat wounds, researchers say. This new treatment could prove especially helpful for chronic skin wounds, which are a growing threat to public health, scientists added. With an aging population and increasing rates of diseases linked to ulcers and other skin wounds, such as diabetes, obesity and heart disease, the prevalence and costs of such wounds are likely to rise in the future, said study senior author Ardeshir Bayat, a bioengineer and clinician-scientist at the University of Manchester in England. In the past three decades, scientists have developed a variety of skin substitutes to help treat wounds. Read More » Global Warming May Spawn More Southeast US Tornadoes  | March, April and May. They found that while the yearly tornado total will climb by 2080, the number of tornadoes will also vary wildly from year to year. "We see this trend in a lot of extreme weather," said lead study author Victor Gensini, a severe storms climatologist at the College of DuPage in Illinois. In the future, tornado season will also peak earlier, in March instead of May, the study reported. Typically, climate models can't predict how global warming will affect tornadoes because the storms are smaller than the resolution of climate models.
| Read More » Killer Shrimp Could Invade the Great Lakes  | Killer shrimp, creatures that indiscriminately slay other animals without eating them, may soon join the list of invasive species living in the Great Lakes, a new study finds. But government regulations for the exotic pet trade and commercial shipping may impede the shrimp's arrival, the researchers said. More than 180 invasive species have made the Great Lakes basin their home in the past 200 years. Government regulations have curbed the introduction of new invasive threats, but the lakes are still vulnerable, the researchers said.
| Read More » Mysterious Stone Carving May Contain Old Message  | A weighty stone carved with a mysterious pattern that may be writing has been discovered in a garden in Leicester, England. The hefty carving was up for sale as a garden ornament when archaeologist and TV presenter James Balme found it. The carving, which was very dirty, may have been plowed up many years ago, Balme said. When he was done conserving it, Balme saw a stone carving with an extremely complex pattern that is difficult to describe.
| Read More » Cost-of-Smoking Estimates Were Grossly Exaggerated Smoking a pack of cigarettes a day will cost a person upwards of $2 million in tobacco costs and other expenses over his or her lifetime — at least according to a study conducted last month by WalletHub, a financial advice website. WalletHub calculated costs between $100,000 and $200,000 depending on the state where one lives, based on a recalculation of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at a population-wide level. Read More » Fires Intensified Deadly Tornado Outbreak  | One of the deadliest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history was strengthened by smoke from burning farmlands in Central America, a new study suggests. The hardest hit states were Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia, which were struck by 15 tornadoes ranked EF-4 or higher on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. There were also four powerful EF-5 tornadoes — the highest possible tornado ranking — as severe storms raked through these states. Researchers now say that air pollution intensified this incredible tornado outbreak.
| Read More » Tiny Drones Capture Gorgeous Views of Sizzling Lava Lake  | "The drone was not able to get nearly as close to lava as I did because it literally would have melted into a soup," said Sam Cossman, the filmmaker and entrepreneur who created the video. Cossman, who used to run a tech startup that provides people with once-in-a-lifetime adventures, found a video online of a bubbling lava lake on the remote Pacific island of Ambrym, part of the nation of Vanuatu.
| Read More » Is It Too Late to Get a Measles Vaccination? The current measles outbreak in the United States has highlighted the dangers of skipped vaccinations, and some people may be wondering whether it's too late to get vaccinated now. If an adult or child had not received the MMR [measles, mumps and rubella] vaccine, "it's not too late," said Dr. Ambreen Khalil, an infectious-disease specialist at Staten Island University Hospital in New York City. "It is better to get an MMR vaccine again, if one does not remember," Khalil added. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that adults who were born after 1956 get at least one dose of the vaccine, unless they can show that they have either been vaccinated or had all three diseases that the MMR vaccine protects against. Read More » SpaceX Launch of DSCOVR Satellite, Rocket Landing Try Delayed to Tuesday  | SpaceX has delayed the planned liftoff of a long-awaited space weather satellite and an ambitious rocket landing attempt another 24 hours, to Tuesday evening (Feb. 10), due to weather concerns at its Florida launch site. On Sunday, a U.S. Air Force ground radar malfunction delayed SpaceX's launch of Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) atop the private spaceflight company's Falcon 9 rocket. The mission was tentatively rescheduled to today, but has since been pushed back another day to Tuesday, when weather conditions are expected to be more favorable for launch, NASA officials said in an update. You can watch the SpaceX launch live online beginning at 5 p.m.. EST (2200 GMT), courtesy of NASA TV.
| Read More » SpaceX launch with deep-space weather buoy reset for Tuesday  | By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Space Exploration Technologies will try again Tuesday to launch a Falcon 9 rocket with a U.S. satellite intended to watch for threatening solar storms, NASA said on Monday. Liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida had been planned for Sunday, but was called off two minutes before launch because of a problem with an Air Force radar system needed to track the rocket during flight. Launch was retargeted for Monday, but a poor weather forecast prompted SpaceX, as the California company is known, to reschedule for Tuesday. Liftoff with the Deep Space Climate Observatory, or DSCOVR, a partnership of NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is now planned for 6:05 p.m. EST/2305 GMT.
| Read More » Ex-Los Alamos scientist to be sentenced in nuke spy sting A former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist who pleaded guilty to trying to help Venezuela develop a nuclear weapon is set to be sentenced. Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni and his wife, Marjorie Roxby ... Read More » NASA Probe Spies Mars Rover Curiosity from Space (Photo)  | Call it a Red Planet two-for-one. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spied the agency's Curiosity rover and snapped the newly released image on Dec. 13, 2014. At the time the picture was taken, Curiosity was examining the "Pahrump Hills" outcrop at the base of Mount Sharp in Gale Crater, according to NASA. MRO's high Resolution Imagining Science Experiment (HiRISE) took the picture, which covers an area of approximately 360 yards (330 meters), NASA officials added.
| Read More » More Floods Hitting Midwest States  | Floods have become more frequent in the central United States over the past 50 years, a new study finds. However, even though the events are striking more often, floods aren't bigger in size, said study co-author Gabriele Villarini, a hydrologist at the University of Iowa. "It's not that the largest floods are getting larger, but that we are experiencing a larger frequency of flood events," Villarini told Live Science. The new research was sparked by a 2013 study by Villarini and his colleagues that discovered heavy rainfall days are becoming more frequent in the Midwest.
| Read More » Amazing! Original Magna Carta Copy Found in Scrapbook  | An original copy of the Magna Carta has been discovered in a scrapbook in Kent, England. The tattered document dates back to 1300, 85 years after King John of England was compelled to sign the first agreement limiting the rights of kings. This version was issued by King Edward I (King John's grandson), who was under pressure from the church and the barons to reaffirm good governance, said Sophie Ambler, a research associate with the Magna Carta Project. The copy was then placed in the Sandwich archive in Kent, where it was forgotten, Ambler told Live Science.
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