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Shades of Star Trek: Scientists create transparent, thin plastic strong like steel

Scientists have developed a transparent new plastic as strong as steel and as thin as a sheet of paper, according to a study published Thursday in Science magazine.

©Unknown
The plastic could be used to reduce the energy required to separate gasses in chemical factories, improve microtechnology such as microchips or biomedical sensors and even one day produce lighter, stronger armor for soldiers or police and their vehicles.

People

Hall's Warehouse And DT Solar To Build The Largest US Corporate Solar Energy Installation

DT Solar and Hall's Warehouse Corporation have announced an agreement to build a 2 MW solar electric power system to supply electricity to their facility in South Plainfield, New Jersey. When completed, this project will be the largest rooftop solar electric system serving a private company in the United States.

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DT Solar will design, build and operate the system, and work with an investment partner to finance the cost of the installation. Revenue from electricity sales to Hall's, and the sale of Solar Renewable Energy Certificates (SRECs) to New Jersey electric utilities, will pay for the investment over time.

Life Preserver

ESA deals with dangerous natural space debris

An object from space, possibly a meteorite, recently plummeted to earth and landed in a remote region of South America, creating a crater 30m wide and 6m deep. People living in the Andes mountainous of Peru claimed to have witnessed a fireball falling from the sky. The event has highlighted the need to find out more about natural space debris and their trajectories. The European Space Agency (ESA) has always expressed an interest in such events and has carried out a number of studies into what action should be taken.

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We need to know more about natural space debris and their trajectories.

Telescope

12,332 man-made space debris remaining on orbit

When Sputnik began orbiting Earth in 1957, it was a lone satellite. Today, there are thousands of satellites and other remnants of space missions -- so much that the term "space junk" has been coined.

Question

Mirror mirror in the sky, save us from asteroids flashing by

A network of mirrors harnessing the destructive power of the sun might save the world from disaster, space experts believe.

If an asteroid should be discovered on a catastrophic collision course with our planet, researchers at Glasgow University say mirrors are the best way to save us from annihilation.

Life Preserver

Hydrothermal Vents: Hot Spots Of Microbial Diversity

Thousands of new kinds of marine microbes have been discovered at two deep-sea hydrothermal vents off the Oregon coast by scientists at the MBL (Marine Biological Laboratory) and University of Washington's Joint Institute for the Study of Atmosphere and Ocean.

Their findings, published in the journal Science, are the result of the most comprehensive, comparative study to date of deep-sea microbial communities that are responsible for cycling carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur to help keep Earth habitable.

©NOAA Vents Program, NeMO Seafloor Observatory
Image of diffuse flow hydrothermal vent Marker 52 taken in 2006 by the Remotely Operated Vehicle ROPOS during the NeMO 2006 expedition to Axial Seamount.

Bizarro Earth

Thousands of new marine microbes discovered

Scientists have uncovered thousands of marine microbes -- including never-before-seen bacteria -- thriving deep in the sea near cracks in the Earth's crust where warm fluids and cold sea water mix, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

Using new DNA sequencing techniques, the researchers have identified as many as 37,000 different kinds of bacteria huddled near two hydrothermal vents on an underwater volcano off the Oregon coast.

Info

No Faking It, Crocodile Tears Are Real

When someone feigns sadness they "cry crocodile tears," a phrase that comes from an old myth that the animals cry while eating.

Now, a University of Florida researcher has concluded that crocodiles really do bawl while banqueting - but for physiological reasons rather than rascally reptilian remorse.

©Kent Vliet/University of Florida
An alligator weeps while eating at the Florida's St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park in spring 2006. University of Florida zoologist Kent Vliet shot the photo while observing alligators and caimans at the park in an attempt to determine the truth of the myth that crocodiles cry while eating. Five of the seven animals, close relatives of the crocodile, teared up during meals. Like the one pictured here, some of their tears even bubbled and frothed.

Rocket

Russia to help NASA explore Moon, Mars

Russia is to provide the US space agency NASA with instruments for scanning both the Moon and Mars under agreements signed here Wednesday.

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Telescope

Star System Just Right For Building An Earth



©NASA/JPL-Caltech
This artist's conception shows a binary-star, or two-star, system, called HD 113766, where astronomers suspect a rocky Earth-like planet is forming around one of the stars.