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• Commercial human ventures planned for the moon: NASA study

  By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Corporate researchers may be living on the moon by the time NASA astronauts head off to visit an asteroid in the 2020s, a study of future human missions unveiled on Thursday shows. The study by Bigelow Aerospace, commissioned by NASA, shows "a lot of excitement and interest from various companies" for such ventures, said Robert Bigelow, founder and president of the Las Vegas-based firm. ...

  
  
• Rocket lifts off with U.S. military communications satellite By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - An unmanned Delta 4 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Friday to put a multi-use, broadband communications satellite into orbit for the U.S. military. The 217-foot (66-meter) tall rocket lifted off at 8:27 p.m. EDT (0027 Saturday GMT), soaring southeast over the Atlantic Ocean as it headed into orbit. Perched on top of the rocket was the fifth member of the Wideband Global SATCOM, or WGS, satellite network, which provides the U.S. military, national leaders and allies with high-capacity broadband communications. ...
• Planetary alignment peaks with celestial show this weekend By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Venus and Jupiter, the two brightest planets in the sky this month, will be joined by tiny Mercury for a rare celestial show this weekend. Typically, Venus, the second-closest planet to the sun, and Jupiter, which orbits beyond Mars, are tens of millions of miles apart. But they have been cycling together while moving ever closer to each other this month, joined by the innermost planet Mercury. The celestial show peaks on Sunday when the trio will appear as a bright triangle of light in the western sky beginning about 30 minutes after sunset. ...
• NASA puts shuttle launch pad in Florida up for lease

  CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Nearly two years after space shuttle Atlantis blasted off for the last time, NASA on Thursday put out a "For Lease" notice for one of its shuttle launch pads in Florida. In a notice posted on its procurement website, the U.S. space agency said it was looking for one or more companies to take over operations and maintenance of Launch Complex 39A. The facility is one of two launch pads at the Kennedy Space Center built in the 1960s to support the Apollo moon program. Both were later modified for the space shuttles, which began flying in 1981. ...

  
  
• Solar plane completes second leg of cross-country flight in Texas

  DALLAS (Reuters) - A solar airplane that developers hope to eventually pilot around the globe landed safely on Thursday in Texas, completing the second and longest leg of an attempt to fly across the United States powered only by the sun. The spindly experimental aircraft, dubbed Solar Impulse, touched down at Dallas/Forth Worth International Airport shortly after 1 a.m. local time, logging 18 hours and 21 minutes in the air to cover 823 nautical miles from Arizona. The flight set a new absolute world distance record in solar aviation, organizers said. ...

  
  
• Spotted: 1st Evidence of Leopard Eating Chimp

  Only rarely have people seen what happens when chimpanzees and leopards come into close quarters in the wilds of Africa. On these occasions, chimpanzees have made loud, fearful calls, or played the aggressor: In one case, chimps even surrounded a leopard den and killed a cub.

  
  
• Slow Earthquakes: Slippery Clays at Fault

  Slow earthquakes don't kill anyone, but they're certainly suspicious characters. Recent great earthquakes, such as massive temblors in Japan and Chile, were foreshadowed by slow quakes shuffling through the regions in the months before the deadly shaking struck.

  
  
• UK Beach Quality Plummets

  As Memorial Day weekend sees people in the United States celebrating the opening of beach season, data from a European Environment Agency (EEA) report serves as a warning of how wild weather can affect water safety.

  
  
• Alien Planets Could Shed Light on Earth's Climate Future

  A Comparative Climatology Symposium held at NASA Headquarters on May 7 focused on new approaches to climate research by highlighting the similarities and contrasts between the environments of the rocky worlds Venus, Earth, Mars and Saturn’s smoggy moon Titan. 

  
  
• Astronaut Packs Crafts for Creative Space Station Trip

  An American astronaut is about to get seriously crafty in space.

  
  
• The Art and Science of the Diagram: Communicating the Knowledge of the Heavens, the Earth and the Arcane, Final Part

  The Art and Science of the Diagram: Communicating the Knowledge of the Heavens, the Earth and the Arcane, Final Part

  
  
• Could Science Hatch the Perfect Fake Egg? SAN MATEO, Calif. — Fake eggs made from plant materials could one day replace chicken eggs, one researcher says.
• Genomics Reveals Great Famine Culprit Genome analysis of stored potato leaf samples identified exactly what strain of blight ravaged potatoes in the Irish famine. Sophie Bushwick reports
• More tornadoes from global warming? Nobody knows

  A deadly tornado hit suburban Oklahoma City on Monday. A quick look at some basic facts:

  
  
• Brilliant Science Blunders: Astrophysicist Mario Livio Speaks Out

  Everyone makes mistakes — even Einstein. The truth is, many of the world's greatest scientists made significant blunders along the path toward genius, which should be comforting news for the rest of us.

  
  
• Sharing Science Research in the Age of Social Media

  Sharing Science Research in the Age of Social Media

  
  
• Who's Paying the Price for Global Warming? U.S. taxpayers have so far borne the brunt of climate change costs. David Biello reports
• Scientists say united on global warming, at odds with public view

  By Environment Correspondent Alister Doyle OSLO (Reuters) - Ninety-seven percent of scientists say global warming is mainly man-made but a wide public belief that experts are divided is making it harder to gain support for policies to curb climate change, an international study showed on Thursday. The report found an overwhelming view among scientists that human activity, led by the use of fossil fuels, was the main cause of rising temperatures in recent decades. ...

  
  
• Does 'Failure to Replicate' Mean Failed Science? (Op-Ed)

  

  
  
• Scientists create human stem cells through cloning

  By Sharon Begley NEW YORK (Reuters) - After more than 15 years of failures by scientists around the world and one outright fraud, biologists have finally created human stem cells by the same technique that produced Dolly the cloned sheep in 1996: They transplanted genetic material from an adult cell into an egg whose own DNA had been removed. The result is a harvest of human embryonic stem cells, the seemingly magic cells capable of morphing into any of the 200-plus kinds that make up a person. ...

  
  
• Scientists Report First Success in Cloning Human Stem Cells It’s been 17 years since Dolly the sheep was cloned from a mammary cell. And now scientists applied the same technique to make the first embryonic-stem-cell lines from human skin cells.
• Teenager Designs Safer Nuclear Power Plants

  Do nuclear power plants need a redesign? Critics of nuclear energy seem to think so, and so does nuclear energy advocate, Taylor Wilson. A physics wunderkind, Wilson became the youngest person to ever create fusion at age 14. And since graduating from high school last year, he's devoted himself to finding innovative solutions to the world's biggest problems.

  
  
• What If There Is No Happy Ending? Science Communication as a Path to Change

  What If There Is No Happy Ending? Science Communication as a Path to Change

  
  
• China missile hit highest suborbital level since 1976 - scientist WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China launched a large missile on Monday that reached 6,200 miles (10,000 km) above the earth, its highest suborbital launch since 1976, according to a U.S. scientist at Harvard University. Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said the rocket was launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in western China, and China said the rocket carried a science payload which studied the earth's magnetosphere. ...
• Scientists Use Radar to Locate Clandestine Graves

  It's hard to convict someone of murder if their victim's body is never found. And it's hard to find a body once it's underground.

  
  
• Quick updates: Science Studio, travel and quotes.

  Quick updates: Science Studio, travel and quotes.

  
  
• Move Over, Space Shuttle: There's a New Science Giant Cruising the U.S. This Summer

  Move Over, Space Shuttle: There's a New Science Giant Cruising the U.S. This Summer

  
  
• Science Advisor Gives Hopeful Progress Report on Obama s Achievements

  Science Advisor Gives Hopeful Progress Report on Obama s Achievements

  
  
• French Muslims look to science to determine start of Ramadan

  By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor PARIS (Reuters) - France's Muslim leaders have agreed to end almost 1,400 years of Islamic tradition and use modern astronomy to determine the start of the holy month of Ramadan and other Islamic holidays. The French Muslim Council (CFCM) voted on Thursday to start using astronomical calculations to set the date rather than relying on the naked eye to sight the new crescent moon. Ramadan traditionally begins the morning after the sighting, which has in the past been delayed by a day or even two by weather. ...

  
  
• Physics Gets Frothy as Mathematicians Dissect Mister Bubble [Video] Physics Gets Frothy as Mathematicians Dissect Mister Bubble [Video]
• Mystery Popped: Science of Bubbles Decoded

  Anyone who has lathered up soap or seen frothy suds form on top of freshly poured soda has witnessed the delicate science of bubbles in action. But while bubbles and foamy materials are common in everyday life, scientists have struggled to model suds’ complicated behavior — the way clusters of bubbles grow, change shape and ultimately pop.

  
  
• 'Ring of Fire' Solar Eclipse: The Science of Today's Strange Celestial Event

  Update: See the first photos of the solar eclipse here. An initial video of the 'ring of fire' eclipse is here.

  
  
• Wanted: Citizen Scientists to Hunt 'Space Warp' Galaxies

  Astronomers are calling for volunteers to help them search for "space warps," rare and distant galaxies that bend light around them like enormous lenses.

  
  
• Prominent British scientist boycotts top Israeli conference JERUSALEM (Reuters) - British cosmologist Stephen Hawking has pulled out of an Israeli conference, joining an academic boycott of Israel to protest against its occupation of Palestinian lands, Cambridge University said on Wednesday. The wheelchair-bound Hawking, who has won international recognition for his work on black holes, had been due to speak at a prestigious conference in June organized by Israeli President Shimon Peres that draws hundreds of leading world figures. ...
• NY group buys Tesla property, plans science center

  MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) — A New York community group that raised $1.3 million in a six-week online fundraising effort has purchased a laboratory once used by visionary scientist Nikola Tesla.

  
  
• 'Space Hackers' Take On Citizen Science for Suborbital Spaceflight

  MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — The increasing demand for flying experiments in space was clearly in evidence over the weekend as a standing room only crowd of 100 people packed into a room here at the Hacker Dojo to hear about a new era of citizen science.

  
  
• Science Tackles Twitter Talents Researchers offer tips to racking up Twitter followers, based on an analysis of over 500 active tweeters and their half million tweets during a 15-month stretch. Christopher Intagliata reports
• Has Science Cured Gray Hair? Gray hair — one of the classic signs of aging that can lead to a midlife crisis for some — may some day be a thing of the past, much to the chagrin of hair-dye manufacturers and Corvette salesmen.
• Grocery Shopping While Hungry Not Good Idea, Science Confirms If you've ever gone grocery shopping while you're hungry, you know the task can be a challenge: Everything looks good.
• Manned Missions to Mars: Scientists Discuss Red Planet Exploration This Week

  What will it take to get humans to Mars? That's the question on tap for hundreds of scientists, entrepreneurs, astronauts and government officials descending on Washington, D.C. this week for a summit on manned travel to the Red Planet.