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	(Sponsor this newsletter) Rookie Spacewalkers Perform Critical Space Station Work NASA astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren successfully completed their first-ever spacewalks today (Oct. 28), completing a handful of tasks vital to the International Space Station's longterm endurance. NASA's 32nd International Space Station (ISS) spacewalk officially started at 8:03 a.m. ET (1203 GMT) and lasted for 7 hours and 16 minutes as Kelly and Lindgren performed a handful of important maintenance tasks, including putting additional shielding over a science experiment, lubricating the station's robotic arm and rerouting cables to a future docking site for commercial spacecraft. Read More » Modern Mystery: Ancient Comet Is Spewing Oxygen The Rosetta spacecraft has detected molecular oxygen in the gas streaming off comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, a curious finding that has scientists rethinking the ingredients that were present in the early solar system. What's mystifying astronomers about the new find is why the oxygen wasn't annihilated during the solar system's formation. Molecular oxygen is extremely reactive with hydrogen, which was swirling in abundance as the sun and planets were created. Read More » Spacecraft to sample water plumes from Saturn moon By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla (REUTERS) - A U.S. spacecraft was poised to make a deep dive into plumes of water, ice and organic matter blasting from Saturn's small, ocean-bearing moon Enceladus, in an effort to learn if it could support life, NASA said on Wednesday. Only a drop of water will be collected during the 19,000 mph (30,600 kph) flyby, which is scheduled to take place about 1 p.m. EDT. Scientists say that will be enough to answer some key questions about Enceladus, which has a global ocean sealed beneath its icy surface. Read More » Zap happy: electric eels innovative in subduing hapless prey By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When it comes to unleashing their trademark zaps, electric eels employ an impressive and sophisticated set of tactics. A study unveiled on Wednesday detailed how these dangerous denizens of the muddy waterways of South America's Amazon and Orinoco basins can double the voltage of their jolts by curling their serpentine bodies to adjust the position of the positive and negative poles of their electric organ. The scientist who conducted the research also described how the eels use electrical pulses as a radar system to track prey as well as to immobilize prey by causing strong, involuntary muscle contractions in an electrifying form of remote control. Read More » 22 Ancient Shipwrecks Discovered Near Greek Island Shipwrecks were the stuff of lore around the craggy coasts of Fourni, a Greek archipelago close to Turkey in the eastern Aegean Sea. By day 5, the researchers had discovered evidence of nine more sunken ships. "I think we were all shocked," said Peter Campbell, co-director of the project from the U.S.-based RPM Nautical Foundation. Read More » Electric Embrace: Eels Curl Up to Supercharge Shocks It's kind of like walking straight into an electric fence, or getting shot with a stun gun. "You wouldn't voluntarily do it over and over again," said Kenneth Catania, a professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and author of a new study about the electric eels' shocking behavior. Catania has been zapped a few times since he began studying the electric eel (Electrophorus electricus), a fish that's indigenous to the murky waters of the Amazon. Read More » Omm…MG! Rare Yoga Injury Breaks Man's Leg A man in Ireland broke his leg and spent 10 days in the hospital after injuring himself in a surprising way — while practicing yoga. The 38-year-old yoga enthusiast fractured the thighbone on his right leg while doing a difficult seated yoga pose known as Marichyasana posture B in his morning yoga class, according to a new report of the man's case, which was published online Oct. 9 in the journal BMJ Case Reports. When the man got into the position, he heard a loud cracking sound and felt enormous pain in his right femur (thighbone). Read More » Marriage Linked to Better Outcomes After Heart Surgery People who are married may be more likely to survive heart surgery than people who are divorced, separated or widowed, according to a new study. In the study, researchers looked at health and survival rates in 1,576 adults ages 50 or older who underwent cardiac surgery. The new findings suggest that "marital status is a predictor of survival and functional recovery after cardiac surgery," the authors,from the University of Pennsylvania, wrote in their study published today (Oct. 28) in the journal JAMA Surgery. Read More » Oh Baby! The Science of Identical Triplets and Quadruplets For two Baltimore parents, their three new bundles of joy may make them feel like one in a million, and statistics show they're not far off: Parents Thomas and Kristen Hewitt welcomed a rare set of identical triplets earlier this month, The Baltimore Sun reports. The Hewitts' three boys were born more than six weeks early, on Oct. 6, the Sun reported. Statistics help tell the story: Without the help of fertility treatments, and according to a mathematical rule that doctors use called Hellin's law, about one in 90 births is twins, one in 8,100 births (90 squared) is triplets and one in 729,000 births (90 cubed) is quadruplets, Herman said. Read More » Snakebite Victims in Africa Lack Needed Antivenom, Researcher Says There is an urgent need for better and more accessible snakebite treatments in Africa, which cause thousands of deaths each year, researchers argue. Recently, the antivenom manufacturer Sanofi-Pasteur made headlines when it said it would stop producing the snakebite treatment. "The reality is that for the vast majority of Africa's snakebite victims, the loss of Sanofi's antivenom will mean little, if anything at all," Williams wrote. Read More » '1st Hardware Store in Space': Commercial 3D Printer Launching in 2016 California-based startup Made In Space is partnering with home-improvement giant Lowe's to launch a commercial 3D printer to the International Space Station (ISS) early next year, representatives of both companies announced today (Oct. 29). Made In Space built the 3D printer, which is called the Additive Manufacturing Facility (AMF), and will retain ownership of the machine. Read More » Scientists announce progress toward better battery to power cars By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists have created a battery whose technology in principle could power electric cars and other energy-hungry devices far better than current lithium-ion batteries, but it remains years away from commercial use. Researchers at the University of Cambridge on Thursday announced the creation of a laboratory demonstration model of a lithium-oxygen battery that overcomes many of the barriers that have held back the development of this technology. Clare Grey, a Cambridge professor of materials chemistry who led the research, called it "a step towards a practical battery, albeit with many hurdles ahead." The researchers said it could be more than a decade before a practical lithium-oxygen battery is ready, in part because the battery's ability to charge and discharge is too low. Read More »
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