Air Force Spaceplane to Take Flight blog.wired 8/9/08By Sharon Weinberger: The civil spaceplane is dead, long live the military spaceplane! NASA's shuttle is being phased out just as the U.S. Air Force is ramping for its first robotic spaceplane test scheduled for December, reports Aviation Week & Space Technology. air flight

Prosecutors had planned to seek the death penalty against anthrax scientist kingscorecord.canadaeast 8/1/08By Matt Apuzzo And And And David Dishneau, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS: WASHINGTON - A top U.S. biodefence researcher apparently committed suicide this week as prosecutors prepared to seek indictment and the death penalty against him for the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks, a U.S. official said Friday. The scientist, Bruce Ivins, was a leading military anthrax researcher who worked for the past 18 years at the government's biodefence labs at Fort Detrick, Md. scientist anthrax

Monster of Montauk developed at Plum Island gawker 8/1/08No, Lizzie Grubman's still alive. This is an actual monster, some sort of rodent-like creature with a dinosaur beak. A tipster says that there is "a government animal testing facility very close by in Long Island," but unless the government is trying to design horrible Montauk monsters that will eat IEDs and fart fire at bad Iraqis, we're not sure why they would create such an unthinkable beast. montauk monster

Bush Admin Nixes Regulating Greenhouse Gas cbs2chicago 7/20/08 WASHINGTON (AP) ― The Bush administration, dismissing the recommendations of its top experts, rejected regulating the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming Friday, saying it would cripple the U.S. economy. greenhouse gas

DNA clears JonBenet's family, points to mystery killer int3rnalbeta.cnn 7/10/08(CNN) -- Recently developed "touch DNA" technology has cleared all members of JonBenet Ramsey's family of her slaying, authorities said Wednesday. Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy said no one in the Ramsey family is considered a suspect and formally apologized in a letter to John Ramsey for the cloud of suspicion his family has lived under for nearly 12 years. dna family

Ice may disappear from the North Pole this summer english.pravda.ru 7/2/08It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year. The disappearance of the Arctic sea ice, making it possible to reach the Pole sailing in a boat through open water, would be one of the most dramatic – and worrying – examples of the impact of global warming on the planet. ice pole

Phoenix: is there ice on Mars? virginmedia 6/20/08Scientists believe Nasa's Phoenix Mars lander exposed bits of ice while recently digging a trench in the soil of the Martian arctic, the mission's principal investigator has said. mars ice

Mars lander's soil sample has not been analyzed theglobeandmail 6/8/08By BOB CHRISTIE, Associated Press: PHOENIX — The first sample of Martian dirt dumped onto the opening of the Phoenix lander's tiny testing oven failed to reach the instrument and scientists said Saturday they will devote a few days to trying to determine the cause. mars lander

Mars Lander Scoops First Soil Sample For Laboratory Analysis sciencedaily 6/8/08ScienceDaily (Jun. 6, 2008) — NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander made its first dig into Martian soil for science studies and is poised to deliver the scoopful to a laboratory instrument on the lander deck. mars lander

Fixing toilet, but not flatulence, on space station sciencedude.freedomblogging 6/6/08by grobbins: The space shuttle Discovery has delivered a huge science lab to the International Space Station. But it seems like the broken toilet on the space station is getting more attention. The problem has people wondering how astronauts go to the bathroom, and how the toilet will be fixed. space toilet

Space Shuttle Discovery Docks With Space Station cnn 6/2/08CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- Space shuttle Discovery performed a slow back flip and then docked at the international space station Monday, delivering a mammoth lab and two new occupants: a NASA astronaut and Buzz Lightyear. space shuttle

Mars probe appears to have landed atop ice sfchroniclemarketplace 6/1/08By David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor: SAN FRANCISCO -- Elated scientists probing the arctic surface of Mars with their newly landed Phoenix spacecraft said Saturday they are convinced they have found a bright and shiny layer of genuine ice only inches beneath the Martian soil and directly under the body of the lander itself. mars ice

Rare Indian Tribe Spotted in Brazil. dotspotter 5/31/08One of Brazil's last uncontacted Indian tribes has been spotted in the far western Amazon jungle near the Peruvian border, the National Indian Foundation said Thursday. The Indians were sighted in an Ethno-Environmental Protected Area along the Envira River in flights over remote Acre state, said the Brazilian government foundation, known as Funai. brazil tribe