1. On Wednesday, May 15th, the House Committee on Natural Resources: Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife will hold a Legislative Hearing on H.R. 2532: To protect grizzly bear populations, and for other purposes, in the Longworth House Office Building 1324. We'd like to solicit an article examining how serious the issue is. Fee: $100
When it comes to the inequality in people's health across the globe, says Professor Danny Dorling (University of Sheffield, United Kingdom) "you can say it, you can prove it, you can tabulate it, but it is only when you show it that it hits home."
Public Health Spending: Worldmapper Poster 213. Source of data used to create map: United Nations Development Program, Human Development Report 2004. (Credit: Worldmapper)
A team of researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara led by Shuji Nakamura, winner of the 2006 Millennium Technology Prize, has reported a major breakthrough in laser diode development.
The photograph shows the far-field pattern of the world's first gallium nitride (GaN) nonpolar blue-violet laser diodes. The bright spots illustrate clear lasing modes. (Credit: UCSB Solid State Lighting and Display Center)
The International Space Station will likely remain operational until 2025, the head of the Russian spacecraft manufacturer Energia said Tuesday.
"No one is going to sink or drop the ISS, as all countries realize that the station is becoming a full-scale industrial facility in space.
The first MiG-29KUB carrier-based fighter developed for the Indian Navy took off at the Russian Zhukovsky aircraft test centre on January 22.
The first public revelation of the earliest continuous Semitic text ever deciphered has taken place at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Spell from the Egyptian pyramid text states in a Semitic language, but written in hieroglyphics: "Mother snake, mother snake says mucus-mucus." (Image courtesy of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
If you bend a knee or an elbow, the nerves in your limbs stretch but do not break. A University of Utah study suggests why: A gene produces a springy protein that keeps nerve cells flexible. When the gene was disabled in tiny nematode worms, their nerve cells literally broke.
Nerve cells glow fluorescent green in these microscope photographs showing part of a cross section of a tiny nematode worm. The horizontal green linear feature near the bottom of each photo is the worm equivalent of the spinal cord, while a secondary nerve cord is the horizontal green line near the top.
Why are males larger than females in some animal species (such as most mammals), females larger than males in others (such as most insects), and why are the sexes alike in yet other species (such as several birds)? Further, how is such sexual size dimorphism achieved when it exists? If males and females grow at the same rate, then the larger sex has to extend its growth period. Alternatively, the larger sex can grow faster.
Argiope aurantia spiders. (Photograph by Matthias W. Foellmer)
Smooth as silk. Warm as wool; ______ as wheat gluten. Marketing specialists may be challenged to fill in that blank in the future, now that scientists in Nebraska report the first successful production of high-quality fibers from wheat gluten, that grain's major protein.
Dyed wheat gluten fibers. (Courtesy of Yiqi Yang)
While robots have moved from the realm of science fiction to a myriad of real-life uses, the potential of the "hard-bodied" robots of the 21st century remains limited by their stiff construction and lack of flexibility. A group of researchers at Tufts University has launched a multidisciplinary initiative focused on the science and engineering of a new class of robots that are completely soft-bodied. These devices will make possible advances in such far flung arenas as medicine and space exploration.
Current prototype of a soft-bodied robot (Softbot), built from a silicone elastomer.
On Saturday, Hubble's main camera, the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), stopped working. Until a solution, at least in part, can be found, Hubble will be returned to work with the remaining instruments.
Saturday 27 January 2007 at 13:34 CET, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope entered into a protective "safemode" condition most likely triggered by a short circuit in Hubble's main instrument the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). (Image credit: Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp)
The "spine" of the James Webb Space Telescope, called the backplane, is in great health for space, according to scientists and engineers.
Recent tests show that the backplane, which supports the big mirrors of the telescope, can handle its trip into space and operate correctly when the observatory launches in 2013.
Scientists and Engineers at Northrop Grumman working with the Backplane or "Spine" of the JWST. (Credit: Northrop Grumman)
Excavations supported by National Geographic at Durrington Walls in the Stonehenge World Heritage site have revealed an enormous ancient settlement that once housed hundreds of people. Archaeologists believe the houses were constructed and occupied by the builders of nearby Stonehenge, the legendary monument on England's Salisbury Plain.
Stonehenge, Wiltshire. (Credit: Frédéric Vincent, March 2004)
