CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) ― Twin U.S. satellites rocketed into orbit Thursday on a quest to explore Earth’s treacherous radiation belts and protect the planet from solar outbursts.It’s the first time two spacecraft are flying in tandem amid the punishing radiation belts, brimming with highly charged particles capable of wrecking satellites and endangering astronauts.“We’re going to a place that other missions try to avoid, and we need to live there for two years. That’s one of our biggest cha

Scientists in Korea have developed a new way to produce nanosieves, thin layers with holes just millionths of a millimeter across, using an industrial process commonly used to make semiconductors.The discovery could be used to make selectively permeable membranes ― sieves that only allow specific types of particles to move across them. Synthetic membranes of this type have applications ranging from medical and environmental to energy.In a project supported by the Ministry of Education, Science a

Internet addiction may have a molecular basis, German researchers say, linked to a genetic variation that also plays a major role in nicotine addiction.Researchers at the University of Bonn studying people and their Internet habits found a significant number who exhibit problematic behavior, where all their thoughts revolve around the Internet during the day and they feel their well-being is sever

Chinese astronomers say they are using survey instruments in Antarctica to search actively for Earth-like planets that may sustain life.They installed the first of three Antarctic Survey Telescopes at Dome Argus, located at the highest elevation on the Antarctic continent, at the beginning of the year, China‘s official Xinhua news agency reported.They use satellite phones to give orders to and receive data from their unmanned survey instruments in the harsh environment but can only receive limit

The stresses of poverty -- measured via stress hormones -- leads to impaired learning ability in children and may last a lifetime, U.S. researchers say.Clancy Blair of New York University said high levels of stress hormones influence the developing circuitry of children‘s brains, inhibiting such higher cognitive functions such as planning, impulse and emotional control, and attention known as executive function.Poverty stress resulting from crowded conditions, financial worry, a lack of adequate

CHICAGO (AFP) ― Could the word for mother prove that Turkey was the birthplace of hundreds of languages as diverse as Hindi, Russian, Dutch, Albanian, Italian and English?Researchers using a complex computer model originally designed to map epidemics have traced the evolution of the Indo-European language family to find an answer in a study published Tuesday in the journal Science.Similarities between hundreds of languages spoken from Iceland to India have led to hot debates over where they orig

A local team of scientists has developed a method of delivering drugs specifically to cancer cells, and to monitor the delivery and absorption of the drugs, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said Thursday.In the team led by professors Kim Jong-seung of Korea University and Kang Chul-hoon of Kyung Hee University, the scientists linked the anti-cancer compound camptothecin to a compoung called RGD. The team also attached a fluorescent marker to the compound, enabling tracking of th