Following is a summary of current science news briefs.
SpaceX rocket blasts off for space station
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – An unmanned, privately
owned Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo capsule blasted off from
Cape Canaveral on Sunday on a mission to restore a U.S. supply
line to the International Space Station after the retirement of
the space shuttle. Powered by nine oxygen and kerosene-burning
engines, the 157-foot (48-meter) tall rocket, built by Space
Exploration Technologies, lifted off from its seaside launch
pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 8:35 p.m. EDT.
Japan author, “spooky” science up for cut-price Nobels
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – A Japanese author who writes of love
and isolation, researchers into “spooky” quantum physics and
experts on economic inequality have all been tipped as possible
Nobel Prize-winners ahead of the start to the annual awards on
Monday. Medicine, physics and chemistry laureates will receive
their Nobels first in Stockholm next week, followed later by
economics. But for many outside the world of science, the
literature and peace prizes are the most widely discussed at
the dinner table.
Mars rover finds first evidence of water: a river of it
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – NASA’s Mars rover,
Curiosity, dispatched to learn if the most Earth-like planet in
the solar system was suitable for microbial life, has found
clear evidence its landing site was once awash in water, a key
ingredient for life, scientists said Thursday. Curiosity, a
roving chemistry laboratory the size of a small car, touched
down on August 6 inside a giant impact basin near the planet’s
equator. The primary target for the two-year mission is a
three-mile (five-km) -high mound of layered rock rising from
the floor of Gale Crater.
