China plans to launch its second crewed spaceflight on Wednesday. It’s been two years since the first one.
No feathered dinosaurs after all?
That’s what a team led by Dr. Alan Feduccia of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill says in a new paper. Listen to this: “The theory that birds are the equivalent of living dinosaurs and that dinosaurs were feathered is so full of holes that the creationists have jumped all over it, using …
A shared space for writers?
Would I pay $100 a month to go sit in a cubicle in a converted warehouse somewhere to write alongside a bunch of other writers who have also paid $100 a month? Um…no. Besides, I’d be one of the loud typists complained about in the story who types too fast.
Satellite meets watery doom
A European Space Agency satellite due to orbit the Earth for three years to scan polar ice sheets crashed into the ocean after a booster failed to ignite on the Russian-made rocket it was riding, preventing it from reaching orbit. Whenever there’s a failure like this I can’t help but think how devastating it must …
Nano-word taxonomy
“Nano” this and “nano” that: Responsible Nanotechnology provides a short, useful field guide to what the various nano-terms mean.
Best science Web sites
It’s not my list: it’s Scientific American’s Science & Technology Web Awards. (Via Alone On A Boreal Stage.)
Da Vinci Project update
Alan Boyle reports from the Countdown to the X-Prize Cup private spaceflight symposium in New Mexico. Read the whole thing, but of particular interest in these parts is this update on the Da Vinci Project, Kindersley, Saskatchewan’s, best hope to become a spaceport: In the latter days of the X Prize competition, the Canadian Da …
How long ’til the hydrogen future?
General Motors says it hopes to have in place a viable fuel-cell powered car by 2010, with volume production possible two to three years later. As GM goes, so goes the nation…one hopes.
The Ig Nobels have been awarded!
The 2005 Ig Nobel Prizes have been awarded. Looks like next week’s science column topic has been decided!
Return of the zeppelin…
to explore Titan? I love this idea! (Via Defense Tech.)
A thousand Cinderellas
My daughter loves Disney’s Cinderella. But the tale it tells is older than you might know.
The best science photos
Enjoy this gallery of the Best Science Photos of 2005, courtesy of National Geographic online.
My latest live walk and vlog
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