NASA’s NEXT ion thruster engine sets new world record

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NASA Glenn has been developing the next generation of ion thrusters for future missions. NASA’s Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) Project has developed a 7-kilowatt ion thruster that can provide the capabilities needed in the future. The ion propulsion system’s efficient use of fuel and electrical power enable modern spacecraft to travel farther, faster, and cheaper…

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Scientists think Red Tide may be cause of mass jumbo squid suicides in California

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Thousands of jumbo squid have purposely beached themselves in Monterey Bay located in central California in an apparent “mass suicide” and now researchers think they may know why. Mass jumbo squid have flung themselves ashore many times in the past decades but until know, scientists have not known why. Now researchers at Stanford University’s Hopkins…

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Probe finds strongest evidence yet that Mars may have (or does) support life

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On Sunday, January 20, officials announced that data from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft provides evidence of a wet underground environment, and clues that suggest a groundwater-fed lake could have existed in McLaughlin Crater, a crater fifty-seven miles in diameter and 1.4 miles deep.  According to NASA: “A combination of…

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Wanted – surrogate mother for first Neanderthal baby

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Harvard University’s George Church has talked about alarming genetic engineering ideas before but a recent comment in Spiegel Online has a few people scratching their heads. In a Q&A in Der Spiegel (Germany’s Spiegel Online), Church talks about engineering humans to live to 120 years of age, making people resistant to viruses, exchanging DNA with…

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