|  New Space Station Crew Will Launch Into Orbit Tonight: Watch Live  | Three new crewmembers will blast off toward the International Space Station late tonight (Sept. 1) and you can watch the liftoff live online. NASA will begin live coverage of the launch at 11:45 p.m. EDT (0345 GMT) and you can watch the broadcast on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV.
| Read More » The Brightest Planets in September's Night Sky: How to See Them (and When)  | Eye-popping Venus, low-riding Mercury and stealthy Saturn will all make appearances among the bright objects in September's night sky, and this day-by-day description shows how to find them. This month, Mercury might be glimpsed very low near the west-southwest horizon while Saturn gets lower each evening in the southwest at dusk. Meanwhile Mars, Jupiter and Venus have crossed into the morning sky, but only dazzling Venus is readily seen at dawn as it rapidly rises higher each morning.
| Read More » King of clubs: intriguing tale of the 'tank' dinosaur's tail  | By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One of the most impressive weapons to appear during the dinosaur arms race of the Cretaceous Period was the big bony tail club wielded by some members of a group of tank-like plant-eaters. A new study provides a step-by-step account of the evolution of this distinctive feature possessed by the heavily armored dinosaur Ankylosaurus and its cousins, a bludgeon that may have given even the ferocious Tyrannosaurus rex reason to worry. The researchers studied fossils of the group called ankylosaurs including early, primitive species with no tail club and later ones with a fully developed one.
| Read More » Medical specialists urge more debate on gene-editing technology By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Medical researchers called on Wednesday for detailed, thoughtful debate on future use of new genetic technology that has the potential to create "designer babies". The technology, called CRISPR-Cas9, allows scientists to edit virtually any gene they target, including in human embryos, enabling them to find and change or replace genetic defects. Describing CRISPR as "game-changing", the Wellcome Trust global medical charity and four other leading British research organizations urged the scientific community to proceed considerately, allowing time and space for ethical debate. Read More » Russian Rocket Launches International Crew of 3 Toward Space Station  | Three new crewmembers launched toward the International Space Station early Wednesday morning, embarking on a mission that will boost the orbiting lab's population to a level not seen in nearly two years. A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying cosmonaut Sergei Volkov, Andreas Mogensen from the European Space Agency and Kazakhstan's Aidyn Aimbetov blasted off atop a Soyuz rocket Wednesday (Sept. 2) from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:37 a.m. EDT (0437 GMT). It was 10:37 a.m. local time in Baikonur at launch time.
| Read More » Rocket with 'Denmark's Gagarin' lifts off to space station  | By Shamil Zhumatov BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (Reuters) - A Russian Soyuz rocket carrying a three-man international crew, including Denmark's first astronaut, roared off on Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, beginning a two-day journey to the International Space Station (ISS). The crew is commanded by veteran Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov, joined by rookie Andreas Mogensen from the European Space Agency (ESA) and Aidyn Aimbetov, another first-time space flyer from Kazakhstan's space agency Kazcosmos. ESA dubbed Mogensen "Denmark's Gagarin", a reference to the Soviet cosmonaut and first man in space, Yuri Gagarin.
| Read More » How 'Starshades' Could Aid Search for Alien Life  | The next step in the exoplanet revolution may be an in-space "starshade" that lets alien worlds step out of a blinding glare. The starshade, also known as an "external occulter," would block the light from a star while allowing the scope to spot emissions from much dimmer orbiting planets. Scientists are conducting desert tests of the technology on Earth.
| Read More » United Launch Alliance rocket blasts off with military satellite By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla (Reuters) - An unmanned Atlas 5 rocket blasted off from Florida on Wednesday to put a next-generation communications satellite into orbit for the U.S. military. The 20-story tall rocket, manufactured and launched by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co., lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 6:18 a.m. EDT. Perched on top of the rocket was the fourth satellite in the U.S. Navy's $7.3 billion Mobile User Objective System, or MUOS, network, which is intended to provide 3G-cellular technology to vehicles, ships, submarines, aircraft and troops on the move. Read More » US Military Launches Advanced Tactical Communications Satellite Into Orbit  | An unmanned Atlas V rocket carrying the Navy's fourth Mobile User Objective System satellite, or MUOS-4, lit up the pre-dawn sky in a dazzling display as it lifted off from a launchpad at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 6:18 a.m. EDT (1018 GMT). The mission, which was overseen by the U.S. launch provider United Launch Alliance (ULA) was originally scheduled for Aug. 31, but delayed due to bad weather. The satellite is the fourth installment in the MUOS communications system, which is "designed to significantly improve ground communications for U.S. forces on the move," according to a statement from Lockheed Martin, is building a total of five MUOS satellites for the U.S. military.
| Read More » Ride Along on New Horizons Probe's Epic Pluto Flyby (Video)  | An amazing new video takes viewers along for the ride during a NASA spacecraft's epic July flyby of Pluto. The Pluto flyby video gives a probe's-eye view of the historic July 14 encounter, during which the New Horizons spacecraft zoomed within just 7,800 miles (12,550 kilometers) of the dwarf planet's frigid surface. The short video stitches together real images captured by New Horizons, showing a dramatically sped-up depiction of the probe's approach and close Pluto flyby, as well as its passage out into the dark depths of the faraway Kuiper Belt.
| Read More » Why Creative Geniuses Are Often Neurotic  | Sir Isaac Newton formulated the laws of gravity, built telescopes and delved into mathematical theories. Whatever the truth behind these prominent men's mental health, multiple studies have found a link between creativity and neuroticism — a tendency toward rumination and negative thinking. Now, British researchers have proposed a possible reason for the connection: Creativity and neuroticism could be two sides of the same coin.
| Read More » Iguana Relative Shows How Lizards Spread Worldwide  | "This fossil is an 80-million-year-old specimen of an acrodontan in the New World," study co-author Michael Caldwell, a biological sciences professor at the University of Alberta in Canada, said in a statement.
| Read More » Why 'Denali?' Explaining Mount McKinley's New (Old) Name North America's tallest mountain peak just got a new name. Or, more accurately, the mountain formerly known as Mount McKinley just got its old name back. On Sunday (Aug. 30), during a trip to Alaska, President Obama said the name of the state's 20,237-foot (6,168 meters) mountain would officially be changed to Denali, which is what many Alaskans have called the peak all along. Read More » Daily Marijuana Use Among College Students Reaches 30-Year High The percentage of U.S. college students who say they smoke marijuana daily or nearly every day is at its highest in more than three decades, according to a new survey. In 2014, 5.9 percent of college students said they smoked marijuana 20 or more times in the prior month. In fact, in 2014, near-daily use of marijuana was more common than daily cigarette use for the first time, the researchers found. Read More » Cycling Injuries Increasing Among Middle-Age & Older Adults More U.S. adults, particularly those older than 45, are visiting the emergency room for bicycle-related injuries in recent years, according to a new study. Researchers examined emergency room visits for bicycle-related injuries between 1998 and 2013. In 1998-1999, people in this age group accounted for 23 percent of ER visits for bike injuries, but in 2012-2013, they accounted for 42 percent of these ER visits. Read More » Living Small: The Psychology of Tiny Houses Tiny houses can make big dreams come true. The teensy living spaces, which are usually 500 square feet or less, are often perched on the wheels of a flatbed trailer, legally making them recreational vehicles (RVs), and easy to move. Tiny houses appeal to home buyers who are not interested in "living large" and would never give a McMansion a second thought. Read More » Medical specialists urge more debate on gene-editing technology By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Medical researchers called on Wednesday for detailed, thoughtful debate on future use of new genetic technology that has the potential to create "designer babies". The technology, called CRISPR-Cas9, allows scientists to edit virtually any gene they target, including in human embryos, enabling them to find and change or replace genetic defects. Describing CRISPR as "game-changing", the Wellcome Trust global medical charity and four other leading British research organizations urged the scientific community to proceed considerately, allowing time and space for ethical debate. Read More » 20 kilometer high space elevator tower planned By Jim and Drury Ambitious plans to build a twenty kilometer (12.4 miles) tall space elevator tower have been announced by a Canadian space technology firm. Although this distance is a mere fraction of that reached in space missions, Thoth Technology says its ThothX Tower will make a major cost reduction in space flights by helping navigate the difficult first 50 kilometers (31 miles) of travel that traditionally requires rockets. In addition to needing to carry sufficient fuel to get a payload into orbit, they need extra fuel in order to carry the required fuel to reach that point in the first place. Despite first being proposed more than a century ago, the idea of a space elevator has always appeared fanciful. Thoth Technology has been granted a United States (US) patent for the elevator, which is pneumatically pressurized and actively-guided over its base. Read More » This Photo of Saturn's Moon Dione Crossing the Planet Is Simply Jaw-Dropping  | The photo, which Cassini took on May 21, shows the moon Dione crossing Saturn's disk. Careful study of such "transits" can help astronomers better understand the orbits of Dione and other moons in the solar system, NASA officials said. Parts of Dione are heavily cratered, and the satellite's trailing side features mysterious ice cliffs and fractures that run for tens or hundreds of kilometers.
| Read More » Prawn Nebula View Offers Stunning Glimpse of 'Cosmic Recycling' (Video)  | A new view of the Prawn Nebula shows "cosmic recycling" at work: Glowing clusters of newborn stars illuminate surrounding gas, expelled from an earlier stellar generation, which will eventually form into even newer stars. The 2.2-meter telescope at the European Southern Obsevatory's La Silla Observatory in Chile snapped a choice section of the reddish nebula studded by young blue stars in a newly released image. The nebula, also called Gum 56 and IC 4628, is hard to see with the naked eye although it's around 250 light-years across — it is very faint, and mostly emits light at wavelengths not visible to humans.
| Read More » Regeneron scientists discover key to excess bone growth in rare disease  | By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - Scientists at U.S. biotechnology company Regeneron Pharmaceuticals researching a rare genetic disease that traps sufferers in a second skeleton have discovered a treatment that shuts down excessive bone growth in mice engineered to develop the illness. Company scientists said on Wednesday the protein Activin-A, which normally blocks bone growth, triggers hyperactive bone growth in patients with a genetic mutation that causes the disease. The disease is known as Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva, or FOP.
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