Mars Lander gets lucky break as 'water drops' discovered clinging to craft's leg

[Williamsian50]

The Phoenix Mars Lander has spent months searching for liquid on the Red Planet. Now it appears that water has found the intrepid spacecraft.

Several photographs taken by Nasa's explorer show what look like water droplets clinging to one of its robotic landing struts.

Nilton Renno, a professor from Michigan University and co-investigator on the Phoenix mission analysed the images alongside several colleagues.
Read the entire story below:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1162923/Mars-Lander-gets-lucky-break-water-drops-discovered-clinging-crafts-leg.html?ITO=1490

[Williamsian50]

LIVERMORE, Calif., March 15 (UPI) -- Scientists (http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2009/03/15/Scientists_aim_to_replicate_the_sun/UPI-18371237141456/#) in California say they're trying to replicate the power of the sun by firing laser beams at a tiny pellet of hydrogen.
Physicists at the National Ignition Facility in Livermore say the nuclear fusion experiments may offer the world a clean source of energy, The Times of London reported Sunday.
Read the entire article below:
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2009/03/15/Scientists_aim_to_replicate_the_sun/UPI-18371237141456/

[Williamsian50]

ScienceDaily (Mar. 19, 2009) — Hippos spend lots of time in the water and now it turns out (or researchers argue), they are the closest living relative to whales. It also turns out, the two are swimming in a bit of controversy.
Read the entire article below:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090318153803.htm

[Williamsian50]

ScienceDaily (Mar. 19, 2009) — Researchers are studying some common soil bacteria that “inhale” toxic metals and “exhale” them in a non-toxic form. The bacteria might one day be used to clean up toxic chemicals left over from nuclear weapons production decades ago.
Read the entire article below:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090316151031.htm

[Williamsian50]

Like the famous quote attributed to a Rolls Royce driver, namely "the only sound to be heard is the ticking of the clock", the same can be said of New Holland’s prototype hydrogen tractor.

The company's global marketing manager, Pierre Lahutte, was commenting on the "eerily silent" driving experience associated with sitting behind the wheel of New Holland's NH2 tractor which runs on hydrogen and oxygen, producing nothing but water. "In fact the only sound is the electric motor working, which is a bit like the noise a large radio-controlled tractor makes," Mr Lahutte said.
Read the entire article below:
http://fw.farmonline.com.au/news/nationalrural/machinery-and-equipment/general/eerie-silence-surrounds-new-holland-hydrogen-tractor/1460493.aspx

[Williamsian50]

ScienceDaily (Mar. 18, 2009) — Three new species of bacteria, which are not found on Earth and which are highly resistant to ultra-violet radiation, have been discovered in the upper stratosphere by Indian scientists.
Read the entire article below:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090318094642.htm

[Williamsian50]

ScienceDaily (Mar. 19, 2009) — Twenty years after first being assessed in a long-term autism study, 41 Utahns with the disorder had a higher social outcome than those in similar studies, University of Utah psychiatry researchers have reported in the Journal of Autism Research online.
Read the entire article below:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090320092113.htm

[Williamsian50]

ScienceDaily (Mar. 5, 2009) — Looking for a mate who in everyday conversation can pick up even your most subtle emotional cues? Find a musician, Northwestern University researchers suggest.
Read the entire article below:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090303161427.htm

[Williamsian50]

A little over a year and some three hundred exo-planet discoveries ago, astronomers at the European Southern Observatory in Chile announced that they had found what might be the first habitable planet outside the solar system. Known as Gliese 581c, the new planet is only five times as massive as the Earth and inhabits a rare sweet zone around a dim red star in the constellation Libra where it is neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water.
Read the entire article below:
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/03/cruising-the-go.html

[Williamsian50]

Rocks can be many things: they were probably our earliest weapons, they've been ballast on our journeys of exploration, even modern-art pieces. But a pair recovered from Antarctica may be the grandest application yet - tombstones for an entire world. Lunar and Planetary Institute researcher Allain Treiman believes that them to be pieces of a destroyed dwarf planet, relics from the creation of the solar system.
read the entire article below:
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/03/antarcticas-fra.html

[Williamsian50]

Astronomers have known for years that something seems to be pulling our Milky Way and tens of thousands of other galaxies toward itself at a breakneck 22 million kilometers (14 million miles) per hour. But they couldn’t pinpoint exactly what or where it is.
Read the entire article below:
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/03/mystery-of-the.html

[Williamsian50]

Quantum computers are so sought after they make the Holy Grail look like an IKEA wineglass. The list of things people expect a quantum computer to do starts with "crack unbreakable codes" and goes up from there, so every small advance on the way gets a lot of attention. The latest such headline comes from Northwestern University, where researchers have built a quantum CNOT gate that can be linked to fiber optics.
Read the entire article below:
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/03/surfing-the-hyp.html