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| Musical Chairs around the Periodic Table |
| Topic: Extreme Life |
02/17/11 |
| The claim of a microbe that swaps arsenic for phosphorus may be questionable, but alternative chemistries for life is still a question worth considering, say researchers. |
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| Mars, Brought to You by Corporate Sponsors |
| Topic: Mars |
02/10/11 |
| NASA scientists and others think business corporations could bankroll a human mission to Mars. This raises the prospect that a spaceship named the Microsoft Explorer or the Google Search Engine could go down in history as the first spaceship to bring humans to the red planet. |
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| Beaming Rockets into Space |
| Topic: Missions |
01/20/11 |
| An advanced rocket propulsion concept calls for heating a rocket´s propellant by focusing energy on it from ground-based lasers or microwave sources. The technology could cut the cost of putting payloads into orbit by a factor of five or more. |
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| Skeletons in the Pre-Cambrian Closet |
| Topic: Origin & Evolution of Life |
01/06/11 |
| Researchers are studying some of the earliest skeletons in order to better understand the ancient advancement of animal life. |
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| How Earth´s Orbital Shift Shaped the Sahara |
| Topic: Earth |
12/20/10 |
| A change in the Earth´s orbit, many scientists believe, transformed the "Green Sahara" into what is now the largest desert on the planet. While scientists are still trying to find out if the slow shift in orbit had rapid or gradual environmental consequences, they say Earth´s orbit will continue to change today and into the future. |
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| Asking About Arsenic |
| Topic: Extreme Life |
12/18/10 |
| On December 2, NASA held a press conference to announce the discovery of a bacterium that has a novel biochemistry. The research made headlines around the world and sparked a great deal of scientific debate. |
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| The Day the Algae Died |
| Topic: Origin & Evolution of Life |
12/13/10 |
| The P-T mass extinction may have been instigated by populations of algae dying. According to one group of scientists, this die-off of large numbers of relatively simple life forms caused a crash in the ocean's entire food web. |
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| The Three Ages of Mars |
| Topic: Extreme Life |
12/09/10 |
| While no place on Earth is exactly like Mars, various spots are quite similar to the red planet at different times in its past. A new study details the martian ages and the places on Earth that best resemble them. |
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| Thriving on Arsenic |
| Topic: Extreme Life |
12/02/10 |
| Geomicrobiologist Felisa Wolfe-Simon has discovered a bacterium that appears able to use arsenic instead of phosphorus in its DNA. The definition of life on Earth may need to be rewritten. |
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| Can We Grow Crops on Other Planets? |
| Topic: Moon to Mars |
11/25/10 |
| A new study suggests that the surfaces of Mars, Venus and the Moon could be suitable for farming, moving one step closer to the next phase in space exploration: colonizing other planets. |
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