Science

Spider loose on the International Space Station?

abennett — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 12:28:54 -0500

Two spiders have been launched into space to examine the effects of zero-gravity on their Web spinning. The problem: only one of them seems to be in their little spider home at the moment.

They saved Copernicus' skull

abennett — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 20:18:00 -0500

Some clever DNA detective work has confirmed that some bones found under one of the side altars in the Roman Catholic cathedral in Frombork, Poland were in fact those of Nicholas Copernicus.

Mission possible: The Internet in space

ITworld staff — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:34:28 -0500

In space, no one can hear you scream. But scoring an Internet hookup suddenly isn't out of the question.

Rude robots, stay away from homes

ITworld staff — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:07:31 -0500

Robots may look cool, but if badly programmed, they can be insolent during social interaction with humans, a researcher said on Tuesday.

Downed Hadron Collider faces $21M in repairs

ITworld staff — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:10:58 -0500

Late in September, CERN disclosed that a faulty electrical connection had knocked the collider offline till next spring. Now, it looks like it will cost upwards of $21 million to get the collider operational again.

Annals of science: Mexican researchers turn tequila into diamonds

abennett — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:20:09 -0500

Now here is research we can all get behind. Mexican scientists have figured out how to turn tequila into diamonds. The most I ever got out of tequila is a big headache with a side of regret.

NASA continues to pepper Australia with space garbage

abennett — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:28:22 -0500

A short 29 years after the Skylab space station landed in bits across southwestern Australia, an ammonia tank from the International Space Station has splashed down in the South Pacific.

NASA's Mars Lander tweets and blogs about its death

ITworld staff — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:36:57 -0500

The Phoenix Mars Lander's last words posted on Twitter: "Take care of that beautiful blue marble out there in space, our home planet. I'll be keeping an eye from here."

Scientists invest time, money in tiny-ball-whacking research

abennett — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 11:10:51 -0500

Turns out that golf isn't "all in the wrists." Also, it turns out that researchers can spend a lot of money figuring that out.

Human evolution over: This is as good as it gets

abennett — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 11:14:51 -0400

A British geneticist claims that most of the environmental factors that drive natural selection have been eliminated in modern civilization, meaning that human evolution is at an end. Looks like the pinky toe is here to stay!