AScribe Science News Service articles from March 2004

AScribe Science News Service archives from March 2004

NASA Headquarters: Mars Rover Opportunity Press Briefing March 2.
March 1, 2004... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., March 1 (AScribe Newswire) -- Significant findings from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, now exploring Meridiani Planum on Mars, will be announced at a press briefing at 11:00...

March Star Trak: Five Planets Parade Across Evening Sky.
March 2, 2004... Byline: Indiana University BLOOMINGTON, Ind., March 2 (AScribe Newswire) -- With a single sweep of the eye across the evening sky in March, you can see all five of the planets that are visible with the unaided eye. Venus, the brightest...

Opportunity Rover Finds Strong Evidence Meridiani Planum Was Wet.
March 2, 2004... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., March 2 (AScribe Newswire) -- Scientists have concluded the part of Mars that NASA's Opportunity rover is exploring was soaking wet in the past. Evidence the rover found in a rock...

Artificial Muscles Get a Human Touch at Conference.
March 2, 2004... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., March 2 (AScribe Newswire) -- The Jet Propulsion Laboratory today released the following advisory. WHAT: Scientists and engineers from several countries will provide an...

Web Site Launched This Week Features Pioneer EarthDials From Around the Globe.
March 2, 2004... Byline: University of Washington SEATTLE, March 2 (AScribe Newswire) -- Join a dozen "EarthDialers" starting this week at http://planetary.org/mars/earthdial as the modern marvel of the webcam merges with the ancient technology for marking...

Ocean Science Competition Is No Day at the Beach.
March 3, 2004... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., March 3 (AScribe Newswire) -- The Jet Propulsion Laboratory today released the following advisory. WHAT: High school students will turn up the heat and rip through a storm of...

Tumbleweed Rover Goes on a Roll at South Pole.
March 3, 2004... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., March 3 (AScribe Newswire) -- A balloon-shaped robot explorer that one day could search for evidence that water existed on other planets has survived some of the most trying conditions on...

University of Virginia Researchers Describe Method of Protecting Chromosomes During Cell Division.
March 4, 2004... Byline: University of Virginia Health System CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., March 4 (AScribe Newswire) -- One hallmark of most cancer cells is that they have an incorrect number of chromosomes, a state called aneuploidy. Now, researchers at the...

Students Ready to Buggy Across 'Moon' as Teams Gear Up for NASA's 11th Annual Great Moonbuggy Race, April 2-3.
March 5, 2004... Byline: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center HUNTSVILLE, Ala., March 5 (AScribe Newswire) -- They're getting ready to "buggy" at high schools, trade schools, colleges and universities. Student teams from 18 states and Puerto Rico have their...

Volcanic Rock in Mars' Gusev Crater Hints at Past Water.
March 5, 2004... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., March 5 (AScribe Newswire) -- NASA's Spirit has found hints of a water history in a rock at Mars' Gusev Crater, but it is a very different type of rock than those in which NASA's...

Cal State Fullerton Outstanding Professor Lecture March 15: 'Science, Seashores, the Public and Marine Protection'.
March 8, 2004... Byline: Calif. State University, Fullerton FULLERTON, Calif., March 8 (AScribe Newswire) -- Cal State Fullerton professor Steven N. Murray, a veteran marine biologist and one of only two Californians serving on the National Marine Protected...

NASA Creates Portrait of Life and Death in the Universe.
March 8, 2004... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., March 8 (AScribe Newswire) -- In a small nearby galaxy lies a luminous cloud of gas and dust, called a nebula, which houses a family of newborn stars. If not for the death of a massive...

Experts: Bioethics Council Appointments, Stem Cell News, Raise Concerns About Administration's Impartiality, Duke University Professors Say.
March 8, 2004... Byline: Duke University DURHAM, N.C., March 8 (AScribe Newswire) -- The dismissal of two members of the President's Council on Bioethics and other recent developments involving stem cells raise legitimate concerns about the Bush...

Duke University Study Gives First Worldwide Measure of Sea Turtle Casualties by Longline Fishing.
March 8, 2004... Byline: Duke University DURHAM, N.C., March 8 (AScribe Newswire) -- More than 250,000 loggerhead and 60,000 leatherback turtles are estimated to be inadvertently snared each year by commercial longline fishing, with up to tens of thousands...

Research Suggests New Way to Repair Cartilage Damage.
March 8, 2004... Byline: Duke University DURHAM, N.C., March 8 (AScribe Newswire) -- Duke biomedical engineers have developed a technique to use a natural polymer to fill in and protect cartilage wounds within joints, and to provide supportive scaffolding...

NASA Rovers Watching Solar Eclipses by Mars' Moons.
March 8, 2004... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., March 8 (AScribe Newswire) -- NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers have become eclipse watchers. Though the Viking landers in the 1970s observed the shadow of one of Mars' two moons,...

UC San Diego Places in Top Tier of Institutions Awarded 2004 Sloan Research Fellowships.
March 9, 2004... Byline: University of California, San Diego SAN DIEGO, March 9 (AScribe Newswire) -- Six faculty members of the University of California, San Diego have been selected as Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellows in 2004 -- double the number in the...

MIT Adds Artistic Spin to Study of Electromagnetism.
March 11, 2004... Byline: MIT CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 11 (AScribe Newswire) -- The winning images in MIT's first annual "Weird Fields" contest are not only beautiful but also educational, helping their creators understand the abstract phenomena they're...

Spirit Looks Down Into Crater After Reaching Rim.
March 11, 2004... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., March 11 (AScribe Newswire) -- NASA's Spirit has begun looking down into a crater it has been approaching for several weeks, providing a view of what's below the surrounding surface. ...

NASA Schedules News Briefing About Unusual Solar Object.
March 12, 2004... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., March 12 (AScribe Newswire) -- The discovery of a mysterious object in our solar system is the topic of a listen-and-log-on news briefing on Monday, March 15, at 10 a.m. PST (1 p.m. EST)....

Most Distant Object in Solar System Discovered.
March 15, 2004... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., March 15 (AScribe Newswire) -- NASA-funded researchers have discovered the most distant object orbiting Earth's Sun. The object is a mysterious planet-like body three times farther from...

Hamilton College Expert Comments on Iraqi War Anniversary.
March 15, 2004... Byline: Hamilton College CLINTON, N.Y., March 15 (AScribe Newswire) -- "The war in Iraq may eventually be won, but peace will be lost" says Hamilton College cultural anthropologist Douglas Raybeck. "Those who characterize us as blinded by...

Hampshire College Student's Pedicab Design Being Shown in 'March Madness for the Mind,' a Showcase of Nation's Top Collegiate Inventions at Tech Museum in San Jose, Calif.
March 16, 2004... Byline: Hampshire College AMHERST, Mass., March 16 (AScribe Newswire) -- Move over, "Apprentice" contestants-a new generation of rickshaws is on the way! A Hampshire College student who knows how to build a better pedicab is among...

William H. Pickering, Former Director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Dies.
March 16, 2004... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., March 16 (AScribe Newswire) -- Dr. William H. Pickering, a central figure in the U.S. space race and former director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., from 1954 to...

San Diego Supercomputer Center's High-Performance Storage System Achieves Petabyte Milestone; Data Storage Reaches One Million Megabytes, Continues to Grow 10 Terabytes Per Month.
March 17, 2004... Byline: San Diego Supercomputer Center SAN DIEGO, Calif., March 17 (AScribe Newswire) -- The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) announced today that its High-Performance Storage System (HPSS) has reached the milestone of one petabyte of...

Webcast Links Venus Event, Planet-Hunting.
March 17, 2004... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., March 17 (AScribe Newswire) -- Students, teachers and others are invited to join as NASA scientists preview a rare astronomical event involving Venus and the Sun during a live webcast on...

Asteroid: Experts & Event at Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland, Calif.
March 18, 2004... Byline: David Perry & Associates OAKLAND, Calif., March 18 (AScribe Newswire) -- Chabot Space & Science Center today released the following advisory. --- FACT: TODAY - Thursday, March 18, 2004 - tonight - a 100-foot diameter...

Mineral in Mars 'Berries' Adds to Water Story.
March 18, 2004... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., March 18 (AScribe Newswire) -- A major ingredient in small mineral spheres analyzed by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity furthers understanding of past water at Opportunity's...

Sandia Begins Major Test Capabilities Upgrade.
March 19, 2004... Byline: Sandia National Laboratories ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., March 19 (AScribe Newswire) -- New construction is under way at the National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) Sandia National Laboratories on a $110 million, five-year program...

Media: Mars Rover Opportunity Update March 23 at NASA Headquarters.
March 22, 2004... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., March 22 (AScribe Newswire) -- A major scientific finding from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity will be announced at a Space Science Update at 11 a.m. Pacific Time, Tuesday,...

Past Primaries, Purdue Rube Goldberg Team Goes for National Win.
March 22, 2004... Byline: Purdue University WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., March 22 (AScribe Newswire) -- A group of Purdue School of Technology students will try to earn the university's second consecutive national title on April 3 during the 17th annual national...

'Dance of the Planets': Rare Five-Planet Alignment Visible Through Chabot Center's Telescopes in Oakland, Calif.
March 23, 2004... Byline: Chabot Space & Science Center OAKLAND, Calif., March 23 (AScribe Newswire) -- Chabot Space & Science Center today released the following advisory. Who: Chabot Space & Science Center What: A rare planetary...

Another Twist in the Field of Superconductivity.
March 23, 2004... Byline: Brookhaven National Laboratory MONTREAL, March 23 (AScribe Newswire) -- Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have discovered an interesting type of electronic behavior in a recently...

Standing Body of Water Left Its Mark in Mars Rocks.
March 23, 2004... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., March 23 (AScribe Newswire) -- NASA's Opportunity rover has demonstrated some rocks on Mars probably formed as deposits at the bottom of a body of gently flowing saltwater. "We think...

Cicada Invasion: Experts, Information Site on 17-Year Emergence Available From University of Maryland.
March 24, 2004... Byline: University of Maryland, College Park COLLEGE PARK, Md., March 24 (AScribe Newswire) -- The University of Maryland department of entomology and faculty and students who make up its "Cicadamaniacs" task force are standing by to answer...

Teens: Raising the Bar on Robotics.
March 25, 2004... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., March 25 (AScribe Newswire) -- After only six weeks to build their robots, 57 teams of students, teachers, mentor engineers and their robots are ready to compete in the FIRST (For...

News Tip: Duke University Marine Biologist Calls for Whale-Proof Fishing Gear.
March 26, 2004... Byline: Duke University DURHAM, N.C., March 26 (AScribe Newswire) -- Current efforts to disentangle an endangered right whale whose flipper is wrapped in fishing gear off the North Carolina coast, while essential, are "really only a...

New Phase of Exploration Beginning for Mars Rovers.
March 26, 2004... Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory PASADENA, Calif., March 26 (AScribe Newswire) -- NASA's Spirit will begin trekking toward hills on its eastern horizon in the next few days, entering a new phase of the rover's exploration of Mars just...

'Brood X' Cicadas Will Cause Limited Damage to Trees, Yard Plants Across Eastern U.S.
March 29, 2004... Byline: Indiana University BLOOMINGTON, Ind., March 29 (AScribe Newswire) -- The world's largest insect emergence of "Brood X" cicadas in May will result in some damage to fruit trees and prized yard trees and shrubs, but the large insects...

NASA BioScience and Engineering Institute Awarded to University of Michigan.
March 29, 2004... Byline: University of Michigan College of Engineering ANN ARBOR, Mich., March 29 (AScribe Newswire) -- To "develop a new generation of space bioengineers" identifying the bioengineering technologies of the future, NASA has named the...

Bay Area to Get Unique X-ray Microscopy Resource.
March 30, 2004... Byline: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory BERKELEY, Calif., March 30 (AScribe Newswire) -- A first-of-its-kind X-ray microscope being built for the Advanced Light Source (ALS) of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)...

Experts From U.S., China Collaborate to Develop Intriguing Interactive Exhibit; Dragon Skies: Astronomy of Imperial China Opens July 10 at Chabot Space & Science Center.
March 31, 2004... Byline: Chabot Space & Science Center OAKLAND, Calif., March 31 (AScribe Newswire) -- This summer, the culmination of a joint effort between American and Chinese museum curators will come to fruition when an intriguing and unusual new...