|  Astronaut-Led Charity Auction Offers Rare Look at Orion Space Capsule  | Since splashing down after its historic test flight last December, NASA's first Orion capsule to launch into space has been, for the most part, out of public sight. Now, an auction benefiting students is offering the chance for two lucky people to go behind-the-scenes and see the Orion spacecraft up close. The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF), founded by the Mercury astronauts in 1984 to award college students who are excelling in science and engineering degrees, is auctioning access to the Orion as part of its annual Spring sale of astronaut memorabilia and experiences. "You and a guest will join Hugh Harris, the legendary voice of NASA, for a private behind-the-scenes tour of Kennedy Space Center and the Orion!" the foundation states on its auction website.
| Read More » Mysterious Nazca Line Geoglyphs Formed Ancient Pilgrimage Route The Nazca Lines, a series of fantastical geoglyphs etched into the desert in Peru, may have been used by two separate groups of people to make pilgrimage to an ancient temple, new research suggests. Sakai found that about four different styles of geoglyphs tended to be clustered together along different routes leading to a vast pre-Incan temple complex in Peru known as Cahuachi. Read More » Shrinking Mount Everest: How to Measure a Mountain  | The magnitude-7.8 earthquake that rocked Nepal on Saturday (April 25) may have caused the world's tallest mountain to shrink a bit. Official measures put Mount Everest at 29,029 feet (8,848 meters) above sea level, but recent satellite data suggest the sky-scraping peak may have shrunk by about 1 inch (2.54 centimeters), because the underlying tectonic plates have relaxed somewhat. Accurately measuring miniscule changes in a mountain that is more than 5 miles up is no easy feat, but surprisingly, measurements rely on geometric formulas and surveying techniques that haven't changed all that much since the 1800s, said Peter Molnar, a geologist at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
| Read More » The Future Envisioned at Museum of Science Fiction (Op-Ed)  | David Brin is an American scientist and award-winning author of science fiction. Brin is also an advisory board member to the Museum of Science Fiction in Washington, D.C. Greg Viggiano is the executive director for the museum. The Museum of Science Fiction's first home will be a modular preview museum, which will open in late 2015 in nearby Arlington, Va., and remain in place until the creation of the full-scale museum facility is completed about four years later.
| Read More » Fully Restored WWII Fighter Plane Up for Auction  | 1 Spitfire models still able to fly — will be sold to commemorate the 75th anniversary of two pivotal WWII skirmishes: the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain. The iconic warplane is associated with the Battle of Britain, in which the German Air Force attempted to exert superiority over the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force (RAF). The Spitfire is credited with helping Britain hold its own and for preventing the Germans from becoming the dominant force in the air.
| Read More » Chile Volcano Unleashes Massive Plume of Ash (Photo)  | The Calbuco volcano in southern Chile awoke with a vengeance on April 22, splashing lava down its slopes and sputtering a plume of ash high into the atmosphere. This photo captured April 25, two days after the second eruption — by the Advanced Land Imager on NASA's Earth Observing-1 satellite — shows Calbuco's plume rising high above Chile's cloud deck. Data from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument on NASA's Aura satellite show that 300,000 to 400,000 tons of sulfur dioxide were released into the atmosphere over the three days since the first eruption. When sulfur dioxide gas interacts with water vapor, it can create sulfate aerosols.
| Read More » Color Me Confused! Iridescence Helps Animals Evade Predators Iridescent creatures — such as dragonflies, catfish and boa constrictors — often dazzle onlookers with their shimmering colors. These alluring, luminescent hues may be key to an animal's survival, helping it to confuse and escape from predators looking for a meal, a new study finds. Iridescence is hardly the only conspicuous coloration that befuddles predators, said the study's author, Thomas Pike, a behavioral and sensory ecologist at the University of Lincoln in the United Kingdom. For instance, contrasting stripes may help animals escape from predators, likely because stripes make it hard for predators to judge speed and movement, Pike said. Read More » LA's Island Playground Could Trigger Tsunamis  | PASADENA, Calif. — Landslides coming off Catalina Island's steep slopes could send tsunamis racing toward popular Los Angeles and Orange County beaches with just a few minutes of warning, geoscientists said on April 23 here at the annual meeting of the Seismological Society of America.
| Read More » 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami Had Deadly Predecessors Indian Ocean tsunamis destroyed one of the world's most important silk-route ports in the 15th century, new research finds. Yet there is little record of this devastating tragedy passed down in stories or written records on the island of Sumatra. "Probably not enough people survived to rebuild," said study author Kerry Sieh, director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore. Archaeologists working with Sieh have now found smashed pottery sherds, broken gravestones and other artifacts in towns hit by the tsunamis, from when the region was a refueling stop on the maritime silk route. Read More » Royal Baby: Second Siblings Who Changed the World  | Princess Kate Middleton and Prince William just welcomed their second child, a baby girl, into the world — and into the growing queue to the British throne. Based on custom, the baby girl will be fourth in line to the throne, after Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince George. King Henry VIII, who ruled England from 1509 to 1547, ascended to the throne only because his elder brother, Arthur, died in 1502.
| Read More » Out-of-Body Experience Is Traced in the Brain  | What happens in the brain when a person has an out-of-body experience? In a new study, researchers using a brain scanner and some fancy camera work gave study participants the illusion that their bodies were located in a part of a room other than where they really were. Then, the researchers examined the participants' brain activity, to find out which brain regions were involved in the participants' perceptions about where their body was. The findings showed that the conscious experience of where one's body is located arises from activity in brain areas involved in feelings of body ownership, as well as regions that contain cells known to be involved in spatial orientation, the researchers said.
| Read More » Kids with 'Night Terrors' More Likely to Sleepwalk Young children who get "night terrors" could be at greater risk for sleepwalking later in life, a new study from Canada suggests. Night terrors were most common in younger children, whereas sleepwalking was most common at age 10. But children who experienced night terrors before age 4 were nearly twice as likely to sleepwalk later in childhood, compared with children who didn't experience early night terrors, the study found. Overall, 34 percent of kids with early childhood night terrors sleepwalked later in life, whereas 22 percent of kids who didn't have early night terrors later sleepwalked. Read More » Insomnia Can Worsen Chronic Pain Conditions People who have problems sleeping may also be more sensitive to pain, thus potentially worsening the effects of chronic pain conditions, new research from Norway shows. In the study, researchers measured pain sensitivity in more than 10,000 adults who were participants in the Tromsø Study, anongoing public health study in Norway that began in 1974. The results of the study showed that people who had insomnia were more sensitive to pain than people who didn't have sleep problems. In particular, people who were experiencing chronic pain and who also had insomnia showed a greater increased sensitivity to pain. Read More » Ebola Survivors Should Use Condoms Indefinitely, CDC Says  | The Ebola virus can remain in semen for longer than previously thought, and so men who survive the disease should always use a condom during sex until more information is known, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. The woman, who developed Ebola in mid-March, had not had contact with anyone with Ebola symptoms, and hadn't traveled to other areas where people have Ebola. Although the man had been declared Ebola-free six months earlier, in October 2014, a sample of his semen taken in late March of this year found genetic material from the Ebola virus. What's more, when researchers looked at part of the genetic sequence of the Ebola virus in the man's semen, this part matched the Ebola virus found in the woman, according to a new report of the case.
| Read More » Child Prodigies and Autism: Is There a Genetic Link? Child prodigies may share certain genetic traits with people who have autism, new research suggests. They also looked at 39 other people who were all members of the children's families, including 10 family members who had autism, and four prodigies who also had autism. For example, one prodigy had played an entire DVD of classical music by ear at age 3, and earned a spot on a symphony by age 6, said study co-author Joanne Ruthsatz, an assistant professor of psychology at The Ohio State University. Prodigies clearly share traits with children who have autism, such as exceptional memories and attention to detail, Ruthsatz told Live Science. Read More » Astronomers Salute Hubble Telescope, Look Forward to Its Successor  | Just three decades ago, scientists didn't know how old the universe was, that supermassive black holes lurk at the hearts of galaxies or that you could directly image planets around other stars. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope changed all that. At a panel discussion Thursday (April 30) at New York's Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, scientists discussed how much Hubble has allowed humans to see, and the possibilities for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the $8.8 billion Hubble successor scheduled to launch in 2018.
| Read More » To Boldly Brew: Astronaut Uses ISSpresso to Make 1st Cup of Coffee in Space  | Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, dressed in a "Star Trek" captain's uniform, became the first person in space to sip from a freshly-made cup of coffee on Sunday (May 3), using the International Space Station's newly-installed espresso machine. Her sci-fi styling aside, Cristoforetti made real-life space history. Until Sunday, they only had instant coffee crystals. Launched with other cargo and supplies on a SpaceX Dragon capsule last month, the commercially-developed coffee machine is the first such device designed for use in microgravity.
| Read More » It's Charlotte! Royal Baby Name Is 'Perfectly Balanced'  | Looks like Prince George has a new sibling with a suitably impressive moniker: Charlotte Elizabeth Diana. The wee royal, now fourth in line to the throne, will be known as Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte of Cambridge. "This is a name of perfect balance," said Laura Wattenberg, founder of babynamewizard.com. Not only is the name both classic and relatable, but it is also a very diplomatic choice that honors several members of the extended royal family, Wattenberg said.
| Read More » US in Longest 'Hurricane Drought' in Recorded History  | Hurricane Wilma, a hurricane that hit Florida in 2005, was the last Category 3 storm to make landfall in the United States. Other storms — including Hurricane Ike (Category 2, 2008), Hurricane Irene (Category 1, 2011) and Hurricane Sandy (Category 1, 2012) — caused significant damage, but their winds weren't as strong. Several storms identified as Category 3 or higher have hit Cuba during the past nine years, but they substantially weakened by the time they reached the United States, the researchers found. "There's been a lot of talk about how unusual the string is, and we want to quantify it," Timothy Hall, the study's lead author and a hurricane researcher at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City, told the American Geophysical Union blog.
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