Small spherical objects fill the field in this mosaic combining four images from the Microscopic Imager on NASA`s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. The view covers an area about 6 centimeters across, at an outcrop called "Kirkwood" in the Cape York segment of the western rim of Endeavour Crater. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell Univ./ USGS/Modesto Junior College)NASA says researchers are struggling to

(123rf)Extreme forms of life could exist on eccentric planets outside the solar system with conditions unlike those on Earth, U.S. scientists say.Extreme exoplanets, from scorching hot worlds with molten surfaces to frigid ice balls, could maintain some form of life even though they don't inhabit a star's so-called habitable or "Goldilocks" zone, they said."When we're talking about a habitable pla

(123rf)Dark energy, a mysterious substance thought to be responsible for accelerating the expansion of the Universe, is real, European astronomers say.Writing in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, researchers at the University of Portsmouth and LMU University Munich say their two-year study puts the possibility of the existence of dark energy at 99.996 percent."Dark energy is o

MOSCOW (AP) -- Scientists have discovered well-preserved frozen woolly mammoth fragments deep in Siberia that may contain living cells, edging a tad closer to the “Jurassic Park” possibility of cloning a prehistoric animal, the mission‘s organizer said Tuesday.Russia’s North-Eastern Federal University said an international team of researchers had discovered mammoth hair, soft tissues and bone marrow some 328 feet (100 meters) underground during a summer expedition in the northeastern province of

Detecting radiation exposure is a time-consuming and expensive procedure, with conventional blood-based tests costing thousands of dollars and taking days before results come out.A small Los Angeles-based company hopes to revolutionize the process. According to CEO of DxTerity Diagnostics Bob Terbrueggen, the company’s DxDirect technology represents an opportunity to lower testing costs, and to improve the way the authorities deal with incidents where a large number of people are exposed to radi

Discovery could open new possibilities for treatment methodsCancer is one of the most prevalent chronic health conditions in the world, and affects millions of people across the globe each year.According to one estimate, as many as 12.7 million people developed cancer in 2008 alone, and 7.6 million people are thought to have succumbed to cancer in that year. Korea had the world’s 24th-highest cancer frequency in 2008 for both sexes, according to the World Cancer Research Fund International. One

(123rf)An international team of physicists says they have set a "teleportation" distance record, sending quantum information farther than ever before.Teleportation may bring to mind "Star Trek" and "Beam me up, Scotty," but in this case the researchers from Austria, Canada and Germany say they beamed the quantum state of a particle of light -- a photon -- from one island to another 89 miles away,

The dying of dinosaurs 65 million years ago may have been the second of two extinction events, following one that killed marine life, U.S. scientists say.The extinction of dinosaurs is thought to be due to an asteroid at least 6 miles in diameter slamming into Mexico‘s Yucatan Peninsula, but new evidence shows life on the seafloor was already perishing at the time of the impact because of the effects of huge volcanic eruptions on the Deccan Plateau in what is now India.Researchers at the Univers

(123rf)A study using mice found heavy alcohol use rewires the brain making it harder for alcoholics to recover from a traumatic experience, U.S. researchers say. Study author Thomas Kash of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine said those who drank heavily were at increased risk for traumatic events such as car accidents and domestic violence, but that only partially explained the co

Galileo didn’t invent a colorful, iconic thermometer that bears his name, a chemistry professor at a South African university says in a U.S journal.Peter Loyson of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University says so-called “Galilean thermometers” are sealed tubes of liquid in which glass spheres float and sink with changes in ambient temperature.However, Loyson says in an article in the American Chemicals Society’s Journal of Chemical Education, although Galileo may have originated the idea in a

NASA's Voyager I space probe, launched 35 years ago, is about to leave the solar system and enter interstellar space, scientists say.The spacecraft has detected two changes in the surrounding expanse of empty space around it, exactly as scientist expected it to, before it enters interstellar space, The Register Web site reported Wednesday.This artists rendering provided by NASA shows This image sh

Researchers have found a way to automatically build muscle mass at Galvan Institute of Medical Research in Australia, according to news sources.The report, published in The FASEB Journal, said that blocking the function of Grb10, nicknamed the “Hulk” protein, showed signs of increased muscle growth without any change in activity, diet, or adverse health effects. Researchers compared infant and adult mice of two groups: a normal group and a group whose Grb10 function was halted. The study showed