Phoenix lander dig zone
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University Rumors are circulating that NASA's Phoenix Lander team has held briefings with the White House regarding some sort of forthcoming big announcement. It's unclear whether any briefings actually took place, but some folks wonder if NASA is hiding something. It could be the space agency is just doing their usual pre-hype of an upcoming announcement. Whatever the case, you can join in the speculation by going here and here or even here. Or you can listen to today's Phoenix Media Telecon and see if you can get some clues of what's happening.
Tags : Next year, researchers plan to start small-scale human trials of a malaria vaccine that's proven 75-80% successful in mice.
Researchers at the International AIDS Conference sifted through published papers on the risk of heterosexual HIV transmission. They say that while a popular estimate pegs the rate of HIV transmission through heterosexual sex at 1 per 1000 contacts, true rates of infectivity are all over the map and dependent on many variables. The infectivity rate for certain sorts of activities is much, much higher-- as high as 1 in 3 contacts. The take away message? "Claims in both the popular media and the peer-reviewed literature that HIV is very difficult to transmit heterosexually are dangerous in any context where the possibility of HIV exposure exists."
NASA scientists have confirmed that on-board analysis of ice samples scooped up by the Phoenix Mars Lander earlier this summer prove water exists on the planet.
"We've seen evidence for this water ice before in observations by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix last month, but this is the first time Martian water has been touched and tasted."
-- William Boynton, lead scientist for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer.
The mission has been extended through September 30.
Tyrannosaurs rex: Jane, the Burpee Museum's T-rex looms out of the darkness in Rockford, IL.
Courtesy Mark RyanThree years ago, the world of vertebrate paleontology was abuzz with news of soft tissue discovered inside the fossilized femur of a Tyrannosaurus rex dug up in Montana. The discovery resulted in several published papers and science-based television shows on the subject.
Now a new study published on PloS One claims the supposedly 64 million-year-old “dino tissue” may have been nothing more than some slime that had infiltrated the fossil bone sometime around 1960.
Mary Schweitzer, the paleontologist who made the original claim for dinosaur soft tissue isn’t very happy about the new study, and is defending her research team’s original analysis. Read about the controversy here, and stay tuned for more fireworks.
It's true: It's 2:30pm on Wednesday, July 30, and CNN is reporting that the U.S. salmonella outbreak originally linked to tomatoes has been traced to irrigation water and serrano peppers from a farm in Mexico. Of course, tomatoes have always been "off the hook."
Don't worry, be science: Putting to bed 10 common scientific worries at summer's end
I get some interesting questions from visitors when I out working on the museum floor. A lot of times I don't have the answers, praticularly about new trends of science that are in the headlines. Here's a top 10 list of things you don't have to worry about, from a scientific viewpoint at least, as you enjoy the final days of summer. Topics addressed include shark attacks, cancer from cellphones and the risks of using your car's air conditioning.
Good news about high gas prices: Highway deaths are going down
High gas prices may be killing our pocketbooks, but they're having a positive effect on highway accident death rates. Full details are here, but boiling it down to the basic fact, the National Safety Council is reporting a 9 percent drop in motor vehicle deaths through the first five months of 2008 compared to the same time period last year.
Science stares inside
Courtesy NevenaResearchers in Belgium have figured out why apples stay crunchier, after being picked, than pears. Micro structures through out the fruit of an apple are able to deliver oxygen to the cells while the structures in pears are dense and closed off which prevents oxygen flow. These scientists determined this by using a high tech radiation facility to create images of the internal structure of the fruit. But, you can get a sense for their findings yourself at home. Drop and apple and a pear in a jug of water. Find out which on sinks? Can you think why?
Researchers in California have found that people with low levels of the brain chemical serotonin are less likely to accept an unfair deal, whereas those with high levels are more amenable.
Science Buzz and all related activities
Should regulations be put on when and where people can use text messaging technology?