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	(Sponsor this newsletter) Pluto's Odd Dark Spots Continue to Puzzle Scientists (Photos) The images reveal a great deal of variation and complexity across Pluto's surface — including the four large dark patches near the equator first spotted by New Horizons late last month. "This object is unlike any other that we have observed," New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, said during a news briefing today (July 6). New Horizons captured the new photos last Wednesday (July 1) and Friday (July 3), shortly before suffering a glitch that sent it into a precautionary "safe mode" on Saturday (July 4). Read More » How to See The Scorpion in July's Night Sky Only Orion (the Hunter), the staple of the wintertime sky, has more bright stars. From around 40 degrees north latitude — for cities such as Philadelphia, Denver and Reno — the entire figure of Scorpius just manages to clear the southern horizon. The most noteworthy object in Scorpius is Antares, a distinctly reddish star of the 1st magnitude that marks the heart of the Scorpion. Read More » Is Mars Humid Enough to Support Life? Mars may appear to be dry and desolate, but the Red Planet can be surprisingly humid — perhaps humid enough to support life, some scientists say. "The conditions on Mars, where the relative humidity is high and the available water vapor is approximately 100 precipitable microns, is the equivalent of the drier parts of the Atacama Desert in Chile," John Rummel, of East Carolina University, told Space.com by email. Read More » What's Inside Saturn Moon Enceladus? Geyser Timing Gives Hints The geysers that burst from the surface of Enceladus indicate that this Saturnian satellite is more than just a ball of ice. Previous work has suggested that the geysers are caused by the tidal pull of Saturn on Enceladus, but the timing of those explosions with the motions of the two bodies doesn't quite line up based on models. The new research provides insight into what kind of internal arrangement might be responsible for the timing of the geysers. Read More » Mean Machines: US & Japan Mega-Robots to Battle Two huge, Transformer-type bots — one from Japan, the other from the United States — could soon be facing off in the ultimate futuristic duel. Last week, the geeks over at MegaBots — a Boston-based startup devoted to the art of robot combat — challenged their one and only competitor, Suidobashi Heavy Industry of Japan, to a duel in a YouTube video. Read More » The future of travel? A tube called Hyperloop This was originally the brainchild of billionaire U.S. entrepreneur Elon Musk, who envisioned being able to whisk passengers between San Francisco and Los Angeles in under half an hour. Two years after unveiling plans for a futuristic, high-speed Hyperloop transportation system, Musk has now announced plans for building a test track in southern California and a competition for prototype pods. Several companies subsequently announced plans for pilot projects in California, Texas and other locations, but Musk and his companies, which include privately owned Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, and Tesla Motors Inc electric car company, were not involved. Read More » Cause of Falcon rocket accident still eludes SpaceX, CEO says By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla (Reuters) - SpaceX is still homing in on why its Falcon 9 rocket exploded after liftoff last week, unable to resolve conflicting data radioed back to the ground before the explosion, CEO Elon Musk said on Tuesday. SpaceX plans to take its findings to the Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees U.S. commercial launches, NASA and some customers to see if an outside eye can help resolve the conundrum. Read More » Teaching old dogs new tricks with 'smart harness' (This July 6 story is refiled to correct name in paragraph 12) North Carolina State University researchers have developed new technology designed to improve communication between dogs and humans. Researchers at North Carolina State University are combining their love for dogs with their love of technology. A joint project between the computer science and electrical and computer engineering departments and the College of Veterinary Medicine has developed new technology designed to improve communication between dogs and humans. Read More » US scientists: Warm oceans cause concern of coral bleaching HONOLULU (AP) — Abnormally warm ocean temperatures are creating conditions that threaten to kill coral across the equatorial Pacific, north Pacific and western Atlantic oceans, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday. Read More » When Did Women Start to Outlive Men? It's well known that women live longer than men do, but this wasn't always the case: A new study finds that differences between men and women's life expectancies began to emerge in the late 1800s. They found that over this time period, death rates decreased among both men and women. For example, among people born before 1840, death rates were about the same for men and women of a given age. Read More » Low Testosterone May Raise Depression Risk Men with lower levels of testosterone may be at increased risk of depression, a new study finds. Researchers found that more than half of the men in the study who had lower levels of testosterone had a diagnosis of depression, or showed symptoms of the condition, while a quarter of participants were taking medication for the disease. The vast majority of male participants in the new George Washington University study also were found to be overweight or obese, and so for comparison, the researchers pointed to a recent survey of U.S. adults finding that 6 percent of those overweight or obese were depressed. Read More » Child's Mysterious Paralysis Tied to New Virus So far, more than 100 children in 34 states have suddenly developed muscle weakness or paralysis in their arms or legs, a condition known as acute flaccid myelitis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Previously, researchers linked a virus called enterovirus D68 (EV-D68), which can cause respiratory illness similar to the common cold, with some of these cases. In the new study, researchers say that one case of paralysis, in a 6-year-old girl, is linked with another strain of enterovirus, called enterovirus C105. Read More » 'Direct From Pluto': Science Channel to Air New Horizons' Flyby Images With less than nine days to go in its nine-year journey to Pluto, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is on the verge of delivering the first up-close images of the mysterious dwarf planet. And when those historic images arrive on Earth, they are set to star in a new hour-long special, "Direct from Pluto: The First Encounter," premiering on the Science Channel on Wednesday, July 15, at 10 p.m. ET/PT. "Science Channel viewers will see the very first close-up images of Pluto's surface and its moons, and learn more as leading experts discuss the previous planet's status as well as uncover some surprising research," the channel described in a release shared with collectSPACE.com. Read More » Painkiller Abuse Tied to Skyrocketing Heroin Use in US People who are addicted to opioids are 40 times more likely than others to abuse heroin, making the abuse of prescription opioid painkillers the strongest risk factor for heroin use, according to a new report. "Heroin use is increasing at an alarming rate in many parts of society, driven by both the prescription opioid epidemic and cheaper, more available heroin," said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People who are addicted to opioids are primed for heroin addiction because opioids are essentially "the same chemical, with the same impact on the brain, as heroin," Frieden said at a news conference today. Read More »
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