Science capitalizes on extended solar eclipse

Scientists from the observatory near Hangzhou joined tourists and locals in observing the longest eclipse of the century, and possibly the longest one since the dawn of civilization. People all over China and India (and not only) watched in awe for 5 minutes and 36 seconds as the moon’s shadow covered their countries. “We saw it! [...]

Private Company SpaceX Delivers First Payload to Orbit

Private company SpaceX has successfully delivered its first payload into orbit. It was the second successful launch for the company, which aims to reduce the cost of reaching orbit by a factor of ten. The launch took place Monday from Omelek in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, 2,500 miles southwest of Hawaii. The two-stage Falcon [...]

NASA to Adopt “Space Internet” by 2011

Mike Massimino hit the news in May as the first to “Tweet” in space. He began “tweeting” under the name “Astro Mike” while training for the STS-125 mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. Soon nearly 250,000 people were following his Twitter feed. The reality is that Massimino probably wasn’t really “tweeting” at all, [...]

Echolocation: a new chance for the blind?

As much as technology has improved, a solution to improve the blind’s situation dramatically is yet one to be found. However, as researchers from the the University of Alcalá de Henares (UAH) have discovered, the solution may be provided by nature, or more exactly by  other inhabitants of our planet: the dolphins and the bats. It [...]

The swine flu - now a pademic

The swine influenza is now, officially, the 4th flu pandemic in the last 100 years. Margaret Chan, the director-general of the World Health Organization made an official move and declared the first global influenza pandemic in the last 40 years, for the A(H1N1) virus. However, it’s still unknown if this decision will actually change something in [...]

Tiny frozen microbe could shine light on extraterrestrial life

A new bacteria that has been named Herminiimonas glaciei, found in the heart of Greenland, trapped under more than 3 km beneath the ice, probably holds significant clues regarding what life forms may exist on other planets, according to Dr Jennifer Loveland-Curtze and a team of scientists from Pennsylvania State University. They published this finding [...]

Mosquitoes make harmonic music before making sweet love

So the male mosquito comes, humming an Elvis song, with a rose in his mouth… maybe I’m taking this a bit too far. You know that pesky mosquito sound ?? Scientists have known for years that that is the sound of love for the little buggers. But what they didn’t know, and is quite fascinating in [...]

Dreaming of a white Christmas

Oh boy time sure do flies! It seems just yesterday it was January… still, it’s the 2nd day of Christmas (here), and still no snow That’s why the ZME team will set onto other plains where you can make snowfights and watch the snow from the fireplace. Let’s see… Christmas hat - check Snow - check Wine(just [...]