|  Berlin candy store offers 3D printed sweet treats A German candy maker is hoping to tempt the taste-buds of Berliners with customized fruit gum sweets made with a 3D printer. CUT-yes) say they have developed a way to produce food from a 3D printer. A Katjes store in Berlin's trendy Mitte district showcases the Magic Candy Factory where sweet-lovers young and old can choose from 3D template designs that include individual fruit gum animals and shapes, as well as letters and words. Read More » How NASA's 'Real Martians' Are Preparing for Manned Trips to Mars  | NASA is working to get the agency ready for a human mission to the Red Planet in a few decades, and is showcasing its personnel and projects online. Among NASA's many spotlights is a fascinating new video that zooms in on a NASA power system engineer's quest to create enough electricity to power a Mars base. To Alleyne, the International Space Station showcases many different kinds of research, ranging from biology to physics to Earth and space science.
| Read More » The Only Privately-Owned Astronaut Watch Worn on the Moon Is Up for Auction  | Forty-four years ago, David Scott's watch broke while he was out for a walk. Scott did not notice it had broken until after he had come back inside. Of course, none of that would be noteworthy had Scott not been on the moon at the time.
| Read More » Scientists find genes that protect African children from malaria  | By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have identified specific genetic variations that protect some African children from developing severe malaria and say their discovery will boost the fight against a disease that kills around half a million children a year. In the largest study of its kind, the researchers said identifying the variations in DNA at a specific location, or locus, on the genome helps explain why some children develop severe malaria and others don't in communities where people are constantly exposed to the mosquito-borne disease. In some cases, they said, having a specific genetic variation almost halves a child's risk of developing a life-threatening case of the disease.
| Read More » Lead scientist of Pluto expedition has book deal NEW YORK (AP) — You've seen the images from Pluto. Now, the lead scientist of the historic NASA expedition is ready to tell the whole story. Read More » Egypt's lost Queen Nefertiti may lie concealed in King Tut's tomb  | By Lin Noueihed CAIRO(Reuters) - High-resolution scans suggest the tomb of Ancient Egypt's boy-king Tutankhamun contains passages to two hidden chambers, including what one British archaeologist believes is the last resting place of Queen Nefertiti. Nefertiti, whose chiseled cheek-bones and regal beauty were immortalized in a 3,300-year old bust now in a Berlin museum, died in the 14th century BC. British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves told a news conference in Cairo on Thursday that he believes Tutankhamun's mausoleum was originally occupied by Nefertiti, thought by experts to have been his step-mother, and that she has lain undisturbed behind what he believes is a partition wall for over 3,000 years. "If it is true, we are facing a discovery that would overshadow the discovery of Tutankhamun himself," Egyptian Antiquities Minister Mamdouh al-Damaty told reporters.
| Read More » 1,500-Year-Old Mosaic Shows Map of Ancient Egyptian Settlement  | A mosaic map of an ancient Egyptian settlement is going on display where it was found — in an industrial-park parking lot in Israel. The Israel Antiquities Authority announced today (Sept. 29) the first public display of the elaborate mosaic, which was discovered two years ago. This mosaic graced a church floor some 1,500 years ago, archaeologists said in a statement.
| Read More » Berlin candy store offers 3D printed sweet treats A German candy maker is hoping to tempt the taste-buds of Berliners with customized fruit gum sweets made with a 3D printer. CUT-yes) say they have developed a way to produce food from a 3D printer. A Katjes store in Berlin's trendy Mitte district showcases the Magic Candy Factory where sweet-lovers young and old can choose from 3D template designs that include individual fruit gum animals and shapes, as well as letters and words. Read More » Asteroid-Mining Plan Would Bake Water Out of Bagged-Up Space Rocks  | A new way to harvest asteroid resources is being eyed as a possible game changer for space exploration. Development of the optical-mining idea has been funded by a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) fellowship and grant, along with a small business contract. The concept — which is also known as the Asteroid Provided In-Situ Supplies plan, or Apis — was detailed here during a special NIAC session held on Sept. 2 during the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' (AIAA) Space 2015 meeting.
| Read More » New Maps of Ceres Highlight Mysterious Bright Spots, Giant Mountain  | New maps of Ceres show the dwarf planet's mysterious bright spots and huge, pyramid-shaped mountain in a new light. The new maps of Ceres come courtesy of NASA's Dawn spacecraft, which has been orbiting the heavily cratered dwarf planet since March. The maps highlight the compositional and elevation differences across Ceres, the largest object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
| Read More » Lush Oasis to Arid Desert: How Our View of Mars Has Changed  | The finding, revealed Monday (Sept. 28) by NASA scientists, once again changes the way people view the bright-red planet, Mars experts told Live Science. In the 1600s and 1700s, astronomers tinkered with nascent telescopes and discovered that Mars, like Earth, was a planet and had a roughly 24-hour day-and-night cycle.
| Read More » King Crabs Arrive in Antarctic, with Claws Out for Biodiversity  | The king crab could soon take over a whole new kingdom, and it has global warming to thank for the conquest. King crabs live on seafloors all over the world (perhaps most famously off the Alaskan coast), but scientists didn't know that these large crustaceans had ventured all the way down to the frigid waters off Antarctica until recently. Right now, king crabs inhabit the slope of Antarctica's continental shelf (the point where the shallow waters of the continental shelf give way to the deep sea).
| Read More » Mars H2O: How Scientists Discovered Salty Water on the Red Planet  | This week's announcement that salty liquid water flows on Mars has reinvigorated debates about whether the Red Planet's environment could support life. Scientists announced yesterday (Sept. 28) that dark, narrow streaks that appear on Mars are caused by flowing water. The mysterious streaks were first spotted on the planet in 2011, but it was the chemical signature of the enigmatic lines that helped researchers make their discovery.
| Read More » Blast from the Past: 3 Civil War Cannons Pulled from River  | A community in the southern United States reclaimed an important part of its history Tuesday (Sept. 29), when three Civil War-era cannons were pulled up from the Pee Dee River in Florence, South Carolina. The now-rusty relics once adorned the deck of a Confederate warship, the CSS Pedee, which was built in a shipyard just east of Florence, South Carolina. Heavy machinery was needed to lift the huge cast-iron cannons out of the water, according to WMBF News, which reported that the heaviest of the weapons weighed a whopping 15,000 lbs. (6,800 kilograms).
| Read More » 'Moonspike' Kickstarter Project Aims to Crowdfund Rocket to the Moon  | A team of rocketeers launched an out-of-this-world Kickstarter campaign today (Oct. 1) to raise $1 million for "Moonspike" – an ambitious project to launch the first crowdfunded rocket to the moon. While a science return from the mission would be desirable, the main goal is to see if a small group of engineers can create a moon rocket and payload for a reasonable amount of money, Chris Larmour, a co-founder of the project and serial space entrepreneur, told Space.com in an e-mail.
| Read More » 'The Martian' Wants to Mail You a Potato: Movie Offers Stamped Spuds  | It may seem strange at first, but by the time you get done watching "The Martian," the new movie from director Ridley Scott, you will understand why 20th Century Fox is offering to send you a potato. In the movie, which opens in theatres this Friday (Oct. 2), astronaut Mark Watney finds himself left for dead and alone on Mars. "This will come as quite a shock to my crewmates, and to NASA, and to the entire world, but I am still alive," states Watney, played by actor Matt Damon, commenting on his situation.
| Read More » Russia Launches Progress Cargo Ship on Fast Trip to Space Station  | Russia launched an unmanned cargo ship Thursday (Oct. 1) on a speedy mission to deliver tons of fresh supplies to a waiting crew on the International Space Station. The cargo ship, called Progress 61, blasted off atop a Russian Soyuz rocket at 12:49 p.m. EDT (1649 GMT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where it was late Thursday night local time. If all goes well, the spacecraft will spend six hours in flight, orbiting Earth four times as it chases the space station.
| Read More » 1st Private Moon Landing Set for 2017  | The first private moon landing is just two years away, if everything goes according to plan. California-based company Moon Express, which aims to fly commercial missions to the moon and help unlock its resources, has signed a five-launch deal with Rocket Lab, with the first two robotic liftoffs scheduled to take place in 2017. These uncrewed launches — three of which are firmly on the books, with the other two optional at the moment — will blast Moon Express' MX-1 lander into space aboard Rocket Lab's 52.5-foot-tall (16 meters) Electron rocket.
| Read More » Making 'The Martian': Exclusive Interview with Director Sir Ridley Scott  | In "The Martian," stranded astronaut Mark Watney must use his knowledge of science to survive for several years alone on the Red Planet, in a classic castaway scenario created by book author Andy Weir. The film of the same name is directed by Sir Ridley Scott, who began his screen career production-designing the BBC television series "Doctor Who" (1963) and directing the episodic police drama "Z Cars" (1965). Scott gained worldwide attention upon directing the movie "Alien" (1979), and solidified his sci-fi reputation with "Blade Runner" (1982).
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