|  Northern Lights Webcast Tonight: Watch Amped Up Auroras Live  | Auroras around the world could be super-charged tonight thanks to a severe solar storm impacting Earth, but even if bad weather hinders your view of the northern lights, you can still catch them live in a webcast online. The online Slooh Community Observatory will broadcast live views of the aurora borealis from Iceland tonight (March 17), and it should be a good show. A massive geomagnetic storm is currently impacting Earth, and while there have been no reports of power outages or other issues related to the solar tempest, people have witnessed amazing auroras caused by the storm. "This Tuesday [today] we will have a ringside seat on Slooh to explore the shimmering spectacle of the Northern Lights," Slooh's Will Gater said in a statement.
| Read More » A mother's quest to cure her son By Ben Gruber At 55-years-old, Terry Jo Bichell is a couple of months away from earning a PHD in neuroscience. She says it puts her one step closer to achieving a goal she set out for herself 16 years ago - to cure her son Louis from a debilitating genetic disorder. A mother of five, Terry Jo had spent her life dedicated to helping woman and children, first as a documentary film maker in Africa and then as a nurse and midwife. "When I had my fifth kid and he turned out to be diagnosed with Angelman Syndrome I stopped caring about other woman children and other woman's problems and that is really true. Read More » Passionate About Coral Reef Parasites  | This ScienceLives article was provided to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights in partnership with the National Science Foundation. Unbeknownst even to most marine enthusiasts, parasites account for the vast majority of biodiversity on coral reefs, which are among the world's most diverse ecosystems. Sikkel says that he is often asked how he became interested in parasites. His answer: "Like most marine ecologists, I had no formal training in parasitology.
| Read More » Palestinian students design vest to help the blind navigate Palestinian students from the Polytechnic University in Hebron have created a vest that uses vibration and voice commands to allow the blind and seriously visually impaired to walk unaided. Graduate student of engineering, Abdel Rahman al-Barmeel, who helped design SASB, said the system is simple and convenient to use. The system works on directing the people by voice commands and vibration commands," said al-Barmeel. The project was developed under the supervision of the Dean of Engineering Department and Project Supervisor, Dr. Ramzi al-Qawasmi. Read More » Most Evangelical Christians Say Science and Religion Can Coexist  | "Although many politicians and the media at large portray evangelicals as distrustful of science, we found that this is more myth than reality," Elaine Howard Ecklund, a sociologist at Rice University who orchestrated the survey, said in a statement. Among evangelical Christians, about 48 percent said they see science and religion as complementary to one another, while 21 percent think science and religion refer to different aspects of reality and see them as entirely independent of one another, the survey found. Still, the share of evangelical Christians who think religion and science are in conflict (and see themselves on the side of religion) is 29 percent — more than double the figure in the general population (14 percent), the study found.
| Read More » Football & Head Injuries: What the Brain Research Says The up-and-coming professional football player Chris Borland, of the San Francisco 49ers, is now leaving the sport out of concern that a career in football would increase his risk of brain disease. On Monday (March 16), Borland announced he was retiring from football after studying the link between football head injuries and degenerative brain disease, and discussing his decision with friends, family members, concussion researchers and teammates, according to ESPN. The types of brain damage that can occur as a result of being a professional football player have received increased attention in recent years. For example, there is growing awareness of a particularly severe degenerative brain disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Read More » Ebola Epidemic: Why a Few Cases Could Threaten Progress  | Health officials have made tremendous progress in fighting the Ebola epidemic in West Africa in recent months, but continued efforts are still needed, experts say. Ebola cases in West Africa have, in general, been declining for the past few months. For example, the number of new Ebola cases in Sierra Leone dropped from around 540 per week at the beginning of December to around 65 new cases weekly at the end of January, according to a recent report from the World Health Organization. In Guinea, there was also a drop, from about 150 cases a week in mid-December to 30 cases at end of January.
| Read More » China Outlines New Rockets, Space Station and Moon Plans  | Rocket builders in China are slated to augment their Long March family of boosters this year and in 2016. Additionally, China's Long March 7 and Long March 5 rockets are to make their first flights next year, according to Tan Yonghua, president of China's Academy of Aerospace Propulsion Technology, as reported in the state-run China Daily. The academy is China's major player in developing liquid-fuelled rocket engines. It forms part of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the major contractor for the country's space activities.
| Read More » Chris Borland Leaves NFL: The Science of Football and Brain Injury The up-and-coming professional football player Chris Borland, of the San Francisco 49ers, is now leaving the sport out of concern that a career in football would increase his risk of brain disease. On Monday (March 16), Borland announced he was retiring from football after studying the link between football head injuries and degenerative brain disease, and discussing his decision with friends, family members, concussion researchers and teammates, according to ESPN. The types of brain damage that can occur as a result of being a professional football player have received increased attention in recent years. For example, there is growing awareness of a particularly severe degenerative brain disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Read More » See the Spectacular Aurora Photos from St. Patrick's Day Solar Storm  | Green auroras danced in skies around the world last night thanks to a massive solar storm that super-charged northern lights displays for St. Patrick's Day. Skywatchers captured stunning pictures of auroras in the northern United States, Canada, northern Europe and other parts of the world. The spectacular aurora photos were captured during a powerful geomagnetic storm that lasted through the day Tuesday (March 17) and appears to have tapered off today. Scientists working with the Slooh Community Observatory were able to broadcast their views of the northern lights from Iceland while on their way to check out the total solar eclipse happening Friday (March 20).
| Read More » Sierra Nevada Unveils Cargo Version of Private Dream Chaser Space Plane  | A robotic space plane may start ferrying supplies to and from the International Space Station a few years from now. Sierra Nevada Corp. today (March 17) revealed details about the autonomous cargo version of its Dream Chaser space plane, which the company hopes NASA chooses to fly the next round of cargo missions to the orbiting lab. The company also unveiled a video animation of how Dream Chaser could deliver cargo for NASA. "This represents really the next step in the evolution of Dream Chaser, not only in terms of its capabilities and what it's going to be able to do, but also in its design and its enhancements as we move forward with many of the technical advances over the last couple of years," Mark Sirangelo, corporate vice president and head of Sierra Nevada's Space Systems division, told reporters during a conference call today.
| Read More » Mars colonist candidate expresses grave doubts about mission By Irene Klotz HOUSTON (Reuters) - A contender for a one-way mission to Mars says the venture is unrealistic and will not work, according to an essay by the candidate published on Wednesday. Joseph Roche, an astrophysicist and lecturer at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, is among 100 finalists selected by Mars One, a nonprofit Dutch organization, for possible permanent resettlement on Mars in 10 years. "I do not think we will see a one-way mission in my lifetime," Roche wrote in an article published on Wednesday in the Guardian newspaper. In October, researchers with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology concluded that the plan, which aims to establish a self-sufficient colony of 24 settlers, is flawed. Read More » EVA at 50: Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov Took 1st Spacewalk 50 Years Ago  | It lasted just 12 minutes, but history's first-ever spacewalk – 50 years ago today – took the first steps towards shaping the future of space exploration. On March 18, 1965 at 4:35 a.m. EDT (0835 GMT), Soviet-era cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became the first person to leave the confines of his spacecraft while in orbit and float in the vacuum of space. Leonov, who with Pavel Belyayev was flying onboard the former-Soviet Union's Voskhod 2, accomplished the first extra-vehicular activity – EVA, or spacewalk – on what was only the 14th piloted spaceflight in history. Leonov's EVA did nothing more than demonstrate, barely, that such a feat was possible, but the future spacewalks it inspired — starting with the first American EVA by Edward White three months later — blazed the path for humans to walk on the moon, build and maintain space stations and service satellites and space telescopes.
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