Cape Canaveral, Florida - The U.S. space shuttle Atlantis apparently was hit by a piece of debris that nicked part of its heat shield but the damage appeared very minor, NASA said on Tuesday.
Atlantis and its seven-member crew blasted off from Florida on Monday on an 11-day mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
It will be the U.S. space agency's last chance to tinker with the telescope -- which has vastly expanded scientists' knowledge of the universe -- before NASA ends the shuttle program in 2010.
Science & Technology
A US judge's ruling is a warning to those who want to teach real science in schools that they need to change their tactics
Adistrict court judge in southern California has ruled that a teacher who described creationism as "superstitious nonsense" was making a religious statement, which is impermissible in US public schools. On the face of it, this is completely absurd, even for southern California. Creationism is superstitious nonsense, and teachers should be able to say so. But when you look at the background, the case becomes in some respects less absurd, but also more threatening - especially for hardline rationalists such as Richard Dawkins, who would like to dismiss creationism as beneath contempt.
Adistrict court judge in southern California has ruled that a teacher who described creationism as "superstitious nonsense" was making a religious statement, which is impermissible in US public schools. On the face of it, this is completely absurd, even for southern California. Creationism is superstitious nonsense, and teachers should be able to say so. But when you look at the background, the case becomes in some respects less absurd, but also more threatening - especially for hardline rationalists such as Richard Dawkins, who would like to dismiss creationism as beneath contempt.
Los Angeles, -- U.S. scientists say they have created the world's smallest incandescent lamp to explore the boundary between thermodynamics and quantum mechanics.
The UCLA researchers said thermodynamics concerns systems with many particles while quantum mechanics works best when applied to just a few. The team is using its tiny lamp to study physicist Max Planck's black-body radiation law, which was derived in 1900 using principles now understood to be native to both theories.
The UCLA researchers said thermodynamics concerns systems with many particles while quantum mechanics works best when applied to just a few. The team is using its tiny lamp to study physicist Max Planck's black-body radiation law, which was derived in 1900 using principles now understood to be native to both theories.
© UPI Photo/NASA
Astronomers declared that Pluto is no longer a planet at an International Astronomical Union meeting in Prague, Czech Republic on August 24, 2006. This image from the Hubble Space Telescope in 2005 shows Pluto, its moon Charon (below and right of center) and two newly discovered moons to the right.
Astronomers declared that Pluto is no longer a planet at an International Astronomical Union meeting in Prague, Czech Republic on August 24, 2006. This image from the Hubble Space Telescope in 2005 shows Pluto, its moon Charon (below and right of center) and two newly discovered moons to the right.
Phair's son, Patrick, confirmed his mother, who was born Venetia Burney, died of unspecified causes April 30 at the age of 90 in the British town of Banstead, The New York Times said Monday.
State College, Pa. -- U.S. scientists say they've created tunable fluidic micro lenses that can focus light at will while remaining stationary and can be fabricated on a chip.
The Pennsylvania State University research engineers said such fluidic lenses can be used for many applications, such as counting cells, evaluating molecules or creating on-chip optical tweezers. The lenses might also provide imaging in medical devices, eliminating the necessity of moving the tip of a probe, they added.
The Pennsylvania State University research engineers said such fluidic lenses can be used for many applications, such as counting cells, evaluating molecules or creating on-chip optical tweezers. The lenses might also provide imaging in medical devices, eliminating the necessity of moving the tip of a probe, they added.
Culture Minister Farouk Hosni said that the researches conducted via satellites have confirmed the existence of 132 archaeological sites in Egypt that witnessed no excavations until now.
An artist's impression of the 'King of Stonehange' who was buried at Bush Barrow 4,000 years ago
He was a giant of a man, a chieftain who ruled with a royal sceptre and a warrior's axe.
When they laid him to rest they dressed him in his finest regalia and placed his weapons at his side. Then they turned his face towards the setting sun and sealed him in a burial mound that would keep him safe for the next 4,000 years.
Let me start by confessing I do have a Twitter account. But I won't be fooled again. That is, I refuse to once more play the attention-seeking game, where everyone enriches the contest runner and surrounding marketers for the privilege of aspiring to be one of the very few big winners.
Twitter is a "real-time short messaging service". Users can subscribe to quickly updated text messages from an entity, though the messages are limited to a maximum of 140 characters. Think blogs, but faster and constrained to extremely short postings.
If someone subscribes to you, they're called a "follower", while subscribing to someone is called "following". The language is already revealing of the structure.
When I first heard of Twitter, I made the mistake of thinking it was like Internet Relay Chat (IRC), an old system that allows a group to exchange text messages among themselves. So I wondered why there was such a fuss over a variant of that ancient idea.
Twitter is a "real-time short messaging service". Users can subscribe to quickly updated text messages from an entity, though the messages are limited to a maximum of 140 characters. Think blogs, but faster and constrained to extremely short postings.
If someone subscribes to you, they're called a "follower", while subscribing to someone is called "following". The language is already revealing of the structure.
When I first heard of Twitter, I made the mistake of thinking it was like Internet Relay Chat (IRC), an old system that allows a group to exchange text messages among themselves. So I wondered why there was such a fuss over a variant of that ancient idea.
© Unknown
Scientists have demonstrated that several large NEO impacts in the past have altered both life and the environment.
Scientists have demonstrated that several large NEO impacts in the past have altered both life and the environment.
Some, like comets, are less worrisome since they are composed primarily of ice and small, rocky particles that dissipate upon entering Earth's atmosphere. Others, however, like asteroids are thought of as minor planets that are large enough to damage Earth and its environment if an encounter should take place.
Comment: It is quite likely that comets are as threatening to Earth as asteroids. Read Tunguska, Psychopathy and the Sixth Extinction, The Hazard to Civilization from Fireballs and Comets or Meteorites, Asteroids, and Comets: Damages, Disasters, Injuries, Deaths, and Very Close Calls for more in-depth reading.
© iStockphoto/Heidi Kristensen
Could traveling at warp speed to distant star systems ever become a reality?
Could traveling at warp speed to distant star systems ever become a reality?
Two Baylor University physicists believe they have an idea that can turn traveling at the speed of light from science fiction to science, and their idea does not break any laws of physics.
Dr. Gerald Cleaver, associate professor of physics at Baylor, and Dr. Richard Obousy, a Baylor post-doctoral student, theorize that by manipulating the space-time dimensions around the spaceship with a massive amount of energy, it would create a "bubble" that could push the ship faster than the speed of light. To create this bubble, the Baylor physicists believe manipulating the 11-dimension would create dark energy. Cleaver said positive dark energy is responsible for speeding up the universe as time moves on, just like it did after the Big Bang, when the universe expanded faster than the speed of light.
Comment: This is one of many recent negative articles on Twitter that correctly point out the concerns of this latest social networking tool.
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There are positives of course, such as the presence of the best alternative news source on the web.