Following is a summary of current science news briefs.
NASA rover finds Mars’ soil similar to Hawaii’s
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – In the first inventory
of minerals on another planet, NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity
found soil that bears a striking resemblance to weathered,
volcanic sand in Hawaii, scientists said on Tuesday. The rover
uses an X-ray imager to reveal the atomic structures of
crystals in the Martian soil, the first time the technology,
known as X-ray diffraction, has been used to analyze soil
beyond Earth.
Miners take “rail-veyors” and robots to automated future
SUDBURY, Ontario (Reuters) – In an office trailer parked
outside a mine shaft in northern Ontario, operator Carolyn
St-Jean leans back in her chair and monitors a machine loading
nickel-rich ore into rail cars deep underground. Once filled,
the automated train will snake through a series of narrow
tunnels, emerge from a rocky outcropping, then loop past
St-Jean’s window and dump its payload for sorting.
Insight: Unable to copy it, China tries building own jet
engine
HONG KONG (Reuters) – China has designed nuclear missiles
and blasted astronauts into space, but one vital technology
remains out of reach. Despite decades of research and
development, China has so far failed to build a reliable, high
performance jet engine. This may be about to change. China’s
aviation sector is striving for a breakthrough that would end
its dependence on Russian and Western power plants for military
and commercial aircraft.
SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule splashes down to Earth
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Poland stumbles on journey from low-cost to hi-tech
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New test to improve HIV diagnosis in poor countries
LONDON (Reuters) – Scientists have come up with a test for
the virus that causes AIDS that is ten times more sensitive and
a fraction of the cost of existing methods, offering the
promise of better diagnosis and treatment in the developing
world. The test uses nanotechnology to give a result that can
be seen with the naked eye by turning a sample red or blue,
according to research from scientists at Imperial College in
London published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
Birds of a feather? Now include “ostrich” dinosaurs
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Climate change, or crap shoot? Experts weigh Sandy’s causes
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Three new crew arrive at space station with fish
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – A pair of rookie
Russian cosmonauts and a veteran U.S. astronaut arrived at the
International Space Station on Thursday, boosting the crew back
to full strength and bringing along 32 Japanese medaka fish.
Soyuz spacecraft commander Oleg Novitskiy, flight engineer
Evgeny Tarelkin and NASA’s Kevin Ford ended a two-day journey
with an 8:29 a.m. EDT (1229 GMT) docking at the orbital outpost
as the ships sailed 254 miles above the planet.
Glitch halts South Korea’s third attempt at rocket launch
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea called off the launch of a
space rocket on Friday after a glitch in the Russian-built
booster halted preparations five hours before the scheduled
lift-off. It was South Korea’s third attempt to put a satellite
into orbit and comes after North Korea succeeded in launching a
rocket in April that it said was carrying a satellite, only to
abort the mission early in its flight.
