6990994
submission
JoeRobe writes:
Space.com and others are reporting on a story by NASA, in which they have found "significant" amounts of water ice on the moon as a consequence of NASA's LCROSS lunar impact mission. From the article, 'Based on the measurements, the team estimated about 100 kilograms of water in the view of their instruments — the equivalent of about a dozen 2-gallon buckets'.
6655027
submission
JoeRobe writes:
According to a new article in PNAS, the naked mole rat is found to be cancer impervious. As reported by ScienceNOW report: "The naked mole rat's cells hate to be crowded, it turns out, so they stop growing before they can form tumors....Normal human and mouse cells will grow and divide in a petri dish until they mash tightly against one another in a single, dense layer--a mechanism known as 'contact inhibition.' Naked mole rat cells are even more sensitive to their neighbors, the researchers found. The cells stop growing as soon as they touch. The strategy likely helps keep the rodents cancer-free, as contact inhibition fails in cancerous cells, causing them to pile up."
1720489
submission
JoeRobe writes:
After over 5 months of operation, NASA's Mars Phoenix lander has finally succumbed to the harsh Martian autumn. The lander's mission was originally scheduled for only 3 months. From the article: "As anticipated, seasonal decline in sunshine at the robot's arctic landing site is not providing enough sunlight for the solar arrays to collect the power necessary to charge batteries that operate the lander's instruments... The lander dug, scooped, baked, sniffed and tasted the Red Planet's soil. Among early results, it verified the presence of water-ice in the Martian subsurface, which NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter first detected remotely in 2002." The article points out that while the lander may be dead, the enormous amount of data that it obtained will keep scientists busy for years.
1176445
submission
JoeRobe writes:
CNN is reporting that most kids (97%) play video games on a regular basis. From the story: "half of boys who were questioned listed a game with an "M" or "AO" rating as one of their favorites, compared with 14 percent of girls." However, the researchers are avoiding deeming gaming "good" or "bad". In fact, they found that "those who played games in face-to-face social settings were more likely to say they were committed to civic participation," possibly because gaming can make ties with other local gamers, which in turn stimulates "civic engagement."
