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Curiosity Set to Explore Mars
August 6, 2012
Having survived its nail-biting entry, descent and landing, the Curiosity rover is ready to roll on Mars.
Left-Handed Amino Acid Puzzle Remains
July 28, 2012
A new suggestion of how life ended up with left-handed amino acids comes up short.
Asteroids as Water Balloons Gave Us Oceans
July 23, 2012
Planetary scientists are looking to asteroids as the source of Earth's water – not from evidence, but from desperation.
Dark Matter Remains Missing
July 21, 2012
The most sensitive test to date for dark matter in the form of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) has turned up nothing.
Scientific Ignorance Becomes Apparent
July 18, 2012
Two reports indicate that what we know we don't know vastly exceeds what we think we know.
Our Poisonous Moon: Better from a Distance
July 13, 2012
The moon stabilizes Earth's axis and regulates the tides, but enjoy it from a distance. Now there are more reasons you wouldn't want to live there.
Stellar Dust Disk Vanishes in 3 Years
July 7, 2012
According to widely accepted theory, planets evolve from orbiting dust disks surrounding stars. If so, planets trying to form in the dust around one young star didn't have much time. The disk evaporated within 3 years.
Scientific Markers Can Mislead
June 26, 2012
In historical sciences, observable phenomena are often used as indicators of past phenomena. Some recent examples show how these can mislead researchers.
SETI Gets Good Press
June 25, 2012
For an enterprise that has failed for 50 years, SETI gets good press. There are many worthy enterprises on the planet; what is it about SETI that gets honorable mention with nary a critical word?
Beethoven Rolls Under Darwin
June 18, 2012
Beethoven may indeed be rolling in his grave, but not for the reasons some Darwin-loving reporters think.
Titan Lake News: Throwing Caution to the Wind
June 15, 2012
Planetary scientists cautiously suggested the possible presence of an equatorial lake on Saturn's moon Titan. You wouldn't know that from the headlines.
Too Hot to Handle: Io and Enceladus
June 12, 2012
Two moons in the solar system are turning up the heat on beliefs that they could be billions of years old.
Venus Transit Recalls Adventures of Yore
June 5, 2012
Today's transit of Venus, in which our sister planet appears to cross the disk of the sun, will be the last till 2117. As observatories and millions of people watch the rare planetary alignment, few may know the stories of astronomers who predicted them and explorers who risked life and limb to observe them.