AScribe Science News Service articles from December 2004

AScribe Science News Service archives from December 2004

Star Trak: Year's Best Meteor Shower and Occultation of Jupiter.
December 1, 2004... Byline: Indiana University BLOOMINGTON, Ind., Dec. 1 (AScribe Newswire) -- The Geminid meteor shower is reliably the best of the year, but you have to brave the cold of a December night to see it. So it is less well known than the Perseid...

University of Delaware Researchers Lead Students on Deep-Sea Expedition.
December 2, 2004... Byline: University of Delaware NEWARK, Del., Dec. 2 (AScribe Newswire) -- Tens of thousands of students from around the world will join University of Delaware College of Marine Studies researchers as they undertake a scientific expedition...

Reports Detail Rover Discoveries of Wet Martian History.
December 2, 2004... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., Dec. 2 (AScribe Newswire) -- The most dramatic findings so far from NASA's twin Mars rovers -- telltale evidence for a wet and possibly habitable environment in the arid planet's past --...

Donald Danforth Plant Science Center Receives $50 Million Matching Grant to Kick off Campaign for Financial Sustainability; Danforth Foundation Gift Provides a Dollar for Every Dollar Raised.
December 3, 2004... Byline: Donald Danforth Plant Science Center ST. LOUIS, Dec. 3 (AScribe Newswire) -- The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center announces that the Danforth Foundation has awarded it a $50 million grant that can be earned by an equal amount of...

Cassini Captures Saturn Moon Red-Handed.
December 3, 2004... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., Dec. 3 (AScribe Newswire) -- Stealing is a crime on Earth, but at Saturn, apparently it is routine. The Cassini spacecraft has witnessed Saturn's moon Prometheus snatching particles from...

Distinguished Economist and NASA Expert Examine Climate Change; Environmental Sciences Section Meeting Set for Dec. 8.(Calendar)
December 6, 2004... Byline: New York Academy of Sciences NEW YORK, Dec. 6 (AScribe Newswire) -- Distinguished natural resource economist Rajendra K. Pachauri and global science diplomat James E. Hansen, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, will examine...

NASA Announces Media Briefing About New Look at Planet Forming.
December 6, 2004... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., Dec. 6 (AScribe Newswire) -- Astronomers will present new findings from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope at a listen-and-logon news briefing, Thursday at 10 a.m....

New Railroad Across Tibet Conquers Permafrost Using Crushed Rocks.
December 13, 2004... Byline: University of Colorado, Boulder BOULDER, Colo., Dec. 13 (AScribe Newswire) -- Engineers constructing a new railroad across the vast, high-altitude Tibetan Plateau are using a surprisingly simple idea to fortify shifting frozen...

Mars Rovers Spot Water-Clue Mineral, Frost, Clouds.
December 13, 2004... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., Dec. 13 (AScribe Newswire) -- Scientists have identified a water-signature mineral called goethite in bedrock that the NASA's Mars rover Spirit examined in the "Columbia Hills," one of...

Photo Release: Symphony of Colours in the Tarantula.
December 15, 2004... Byline: European Space Agency - Hubble GARCHING, Germany, Dec. 15 (AScribe Newswire) -- The Tarantula Nebula is the most vigorous star forming region known in the local Universe. Using the power of the freely available ESA/ESO/NASA...

Nasa's Aura Satellite Sheds New Light on Air Quality, Ozone Hole.
December 15, 2004... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., Dec. 15 (AScribe Newswire) -- NASA scientists announced the agency's Aura spacecraft is providing the first daily, direct global measurements of low-level ozone and many other pollutants...

Laser Scalpel Opens Way for Nerve Regeneration Studies in Worms.
December 15, 2004... Byline: Howard Hughes Medical Institute CHEVY CHASE, Md., Dec. 15 (AScribe Newswire) -- Using a precisely targeted laser, researchers have snipped apart a single neuron in the roundworm C. elegans -- an achievement that opens a new avenue...

Brain Region Identified That Controls Collecting Behavior.
December 15, 2004... Byline: University of Iowa IOWA CITY, Iowa, Dec. 15 (AScribe Newswire) -- Perhaps the Beanie Baby craze wasn't so weird after all. Most people have a collection of some kind at some point in their lives. Indeed, historical studies show...

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Director Appointed to U.S. Commission to UNESCO.(Robert Gagosian)(United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)
December 20, 2004... Byline: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution WOODS HOLE, Mass., Dec. 20 (AScribe Newswire) -- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) President and Director Robert Gagosian has been appointed to the U.S. National Commission for the...

Aging Universe May Still Be Spawning Massive Galaxies.
December 21, 2004... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., Dec. 21 (AScribe Newswire) -- NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer has spotted what appear to be massive "baby" galaxies in our corner of the universe. Previously, astronomers thought the...

European Space Agency's Huygens Probe Set to Detach From Cassini Orbiter.
December 21, 2004... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., Dec. 21 (AScribe Newswire) -- The highlights of the first year of the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn can be broken into two chapters: first, the arrival of the Cassini orbiter at Saturn...

Media Information for Cassini Huygens Release on Dec. 24.(Public Notice)
December 22, 2004... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., Dec. 22 (AScribe Newswire) -- On Dec. 24, at 7:08 p.m. PST, NASA's Cassini spacecraft at Saturn will send an electrical pulse to initiate the release of a smaller space probe it has...

Environmental Researchers Propose Methods to Stem Severe Flooding From Global Warming and Climate Change; Meeting at New York Academy of Sciences Set for Jan. 12.
December 23, 2004... Byline: New York Academy of Sciences NEW YORK, Dec. 23 (AScribe Newswire) -- Like the climatologist played by Dennis Quaid in the film "The Day After Tomorrow", researchers Malcolm Bowman and Douglas Hill of the Marine Sciences Research...

Recently Discovered Reef Is Deepest Known Off Continental U.S.
December 24, 2004... Byline: AScribe Harvester: USGS RESTON, Va., Dec. 24 (AScribe Newswire) -- A team of scientists has determined that a coral reef discovered in 1999 is the deepest reef ever found off the continental U.S., the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)...

Experts: Similar Tsunami Possible on U.S. West Coast.
December 28, 2004... Byline: Oregon State University CORVALLIS, Ore., Dec. 28 (AScribe Newswire) -- The type of devastating tsunami that struck the southern coast of Asia is entirely possible in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, but might not cause...

Advance In Transparent Electronics Could Spawn New Industry.
December 29, 2004... Byline: Oregon State University Corvallis, Ore., Dec. 29 (AScribe Newswire) -- Researchers at Oregon State University and Hewlett Packard have reported their first example of an entirely new class of materials which could be used to make...

Mother Nature's Dark Side Revealed Inforces Of Nature; Giant-Screen Film Opens January 8, 2005 At Chabot Space & Science Center.
December 29, 2004... Byline: Chabot Space & Science Center Oakland, Calif., Dec. 29 (AScribe Newswire) -- Shake, rattle and roll! Experience the awesome spectacle of tornadoes, volcanoes and earthquakes in this giant-screen film opening January 8, 2005 at...

Dwight L. Evans, MD, Earns The 2004 Award For Research In Mood Disorders From The American College Of Psychiatrists.
December 29, 2004... Byline: University of Pennsylvania Health System PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 29 (AScribe Newswire) -- Dwight L. Evans, MD, the Ruth Meltzer Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine,...

NASA Events Commemorate Rover Anniversary on Mars.(National Aeronautics and Space Administration)
December 31, 2004... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., Dec. 31 (AScribe Newswire) -- On Jan. 3, 2004, cheers erupted from mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory when the first robotic rover successfully landed on Mars. Three...

Cassini Caps off 2004 With Flyby of Icy Moon Iapetus.
December 31, 2004... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., Dec. 30 (AScribe Newswire) -- NASA's Cassini spacecraft is set to cap off 2004 with an encounter of Saturn's ying-yang moon Iapetus (eye-APP-eh-tuss) on New Year's Eve. This is...