Link Salad

Chinese astronomers discover a spiral arm that encircles the Milky Way.

NASA and Nissan team up to build self driving cars.

The Gogoro Smartscooter will do until someone makes my Tesla Vespa.

Spinal cord implant helps rats to walk again.

Orichalcum has been recovered from a ship sunk 2600 years ago off the coast of Sicily.

Ancient Egyptian fortress unearthed in Sinai. The Wall of the Prince is the largest known fortess in Egypt and was used 3000 years ago.

New poetry by Mike Allen.

Science Links, 10/8/14

Here is a more detailed article on the winners of this year's Nobel Prize for Physics: Shuji Nakamura, Hiroshi Amano, and Isamu Akasaki and their blue light emitting diode.

On this week's Star Talk, Leighann Lord asks questions from the audience on the subject of pseudoscience of Neil deGrasse Tyson.

NASA is considering a deep sleep option for the Mars mission crew.

Sierra Nevada protest halts work on the Boeing and SpaceX NASA space taxis.

The Nobel Prize for Chemistry goes to Eric Betzig, Stephen Hell, and William Moerner. (No link yet; was just announced)

Science Links, 10/07/14

There was an AMA on Reddit with Dr Alan Stern and the New Horizons team.

On this week's It's Okay To Be Smart, Dr Joe speaks on the science of clouds. If you plan to participate in NASA's SkyScience next week, this is very possibly of interest. 

A green tea based nanocarrier appears to kill cancer cells efficiently.

Here is a profile of Doctors Edvard & Mary-Britt Moser, the husband and wife team who are part of the winners of the Nobel Award for Medicine. 

New "programmable" antibiotic targets drug resistant genes.

Three scientists in Japan were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for invention of blue light emitting diodes.

Science Links, 10/3/14

Dr Joe brings us the science of pizza and uses pizza for science.

Space missions map undersea mysteries.

Swirling cloud at Titan's pole is cold and toxic.

Elon Musk says next year's Tesla cars will be able to self-drive 90% of the time.

The Majorana Particle is a theoretical particle speculated by physicist Ettore Majorana to be both matter and antimatter. It may no longer be theoretical. 

Look up! NASA wants you to get involved in #SkyScience and help!

This viral DNA infects cells by changing from a solid to a liquid.

This massive sunshield will protect the James Webb Space Telescope.

Science Links, 10/1/14

Dolphins may use a magnetic sense as a type of GPS.

A six hundred year old canoe could explain how Polynesians colonized New Zealand.

Newly discovered asteroid 2014 OL339 is a new companion for the Earth. It will orbit with us for another 165 years, having traveled with us 775 years already.

The loss of ice in Antarctica has caused a measurable shift in gravity.

NASA isn't just watching our own space weather but also flares from nearby stars. The Swift Mission eyes flares from the binary DG Canum Venaticorum.

 Phil Plait speculates on what might be in the lakes of Titan.

Obama's BRAIN initiative awards $46m in grants among 58 projects.

Science Links, 9/23/14, yes, late

Ex-engineer of NASA and Tesla designed and a built a smart lightbulb. It can "see" ambient light and adjust itself accordingly as well as "remember" schedules and patterns in the house and "prepare" for use.  

Infant solar system shows sign of windy weather.

Radiation strike slows down NASA's Dawn spacecraft.

Pharaoh-branded amulet found at an ancient copper mine in Jordan.

Apple acquires PRSS digital magazine platform.

Remote sensor technology expands knowledge of Angkor and the Khmer Empire.

Science Links, 9/20/14

MAVEN enters Mars orbit.

Special relativity aces time trial.

Robot flies drone. (I for one welcome our new robot overlords.)

SpaceX aims to step up launch dates for NASA.

DARPA wants to implant a device that will give people a stronger ability for self-healing.

Science Links, 9/17/14

NASA announces space launches from the US returns, courtesy of Boeing and SpaceX.

What would have to happen for the ebola virus to go airborne? (tl;dr: Don't worry about it.)

First suborbital launch from Richard Branson's New Mexico spaceport postponed to 2015.

NASA won't meet a congressional order to find ninety percent of near and potentially dangerous asteroids larger then four hundred and sixty feet in diameter.

Marine archaeologists begin an undersea exo-suit diving mission to better explore the wreck in the Aegean Sea where the Antikythera mechanism was found.

Scientists splice the human gene for language into mice. The mice learn faster.

science on date? date? I don't have to show you no stinking date!

Black holes are not shaped as they appear. 

The Chelyabinsk meteorite was hit by an asteroid before crashing to earth.

NASA considers shuttering the Spitzer telescope in order to save other telescopes. 

World: Good, Bad, & Ugly

New York Times editor Bill Keller spiked a NSA spying story in 2004.

Copenhagen holds it first approved Nazi march since WWII. Riot police protect them few from anti-fascist protesters.

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council warns that condom use leads to tyranny.

Marco Rubio, lying liar that lies, is confused over science. 

Russia will cut off US access to the ISS after 2020 over Ukraine sanctions. 

Argentina is the global leader in transgender rights.

Science 5/14/14

This week's Planetary Radio includes an interview with Daniel Lockney over NASA spinoffs. 

New technique should discover exomoons.

Bobak Ferdowsi of JPL is interviewed on the Nerdist podcast.

StarTalk premieres two new podcast episodes this week, one being the first full length Cosmic Queries video episode with guest host Bill Nye.

The Acropolis caryatids are being restored and cleaned by laser. 

The US military wants to build "moral" robots.

Venture capital firm names an algorithm to its board of directors.

Science 5/12/14

A new study by researchers at NASA and the University of California, Irvine, finds a rapidly melting section of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet appears to be in an irreversible state of decline, with nothing to stop the glaciers in this area from melting into the sea.

This week's Star Talk has Neil deGrasse Tyson interviewing Miles O'Brien on science reporting.


A prosthetic limb designed to read muscle contractions and turn it into delicate motions has been approved for sale in the US.

Prehistoric impact 12,800 that set off a wave of extinctions is under attack.

This robot catching arm reacts in less than a 500th of a second.

Sketch Aquariums in Japan permit children to create artificial fish and interact with it virtually.

"I Will Survive"

Kepler might be able to continue its mission after all.

Three new large(-ish) Near-Earth asteroids were discovered last week.

"With Folded Hands"

The National Science Foundation is working with the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, and NASA to develop robots to work with and aid people in myriad ways.

Come and see the methane lakes of Titan. 

The Hubble Space Telescope has discovered an ancient galaxy, one that existed seven hundred years after the Big Bang.

A fire raining comet exploded over Egypt twenty-eight million years ago, back in the Oligocene.

Science 6/27

Unlooted, 1200 year old royal tomb of the Wari civilization found in Peru.

Voyager 1 explores the edge of our solar bubble.

This past week's Planetary Radio features the music of Peter Mayer. Host Mat Kaplan and Planetary Society CEO Bill Nye chat with him.

I'm Back, But For How Long?

1600 year old papyrus refers to Mary Magdalene as Christ's wife.

Warp drive may actually be possible.

Five For Fighting: Five science links for the afternoon of May, 2, 2012

Alpines being used to test equipment for future manned Mars mission.

Dinosaurs appear to have been plagued by pests ten times as big as modern fleas. Their "bite" would feel more like a flu shot than a flea bite.

Meteorite fragments that landed in California is of a rare type called chondrite. Chondrite contains carbon and organic materials such as amino acids and is suspected of seeding the Earth with the building blocks of life.

Spring is starting sooner than previous experiments have suggested.

And Death valley doubles for Mars as a test center for NASA's Curiosity rover.

More Watery Moons

Studies of images, film, and other data sent back from the Cassini spacecraft have enabled NASA scientists to make a connection between Saturn's gravity and the geyser like jets of Enceladus.

Yes, But What is It?

NASA scientists analyze new pictures of Vesta transmitted from the Dawn spacecraft. Preliminary studies show material on the surface that appears to be unchanged since Vesta was formed 4b years ago.

I want yesterday's future

Artistic renderings of O'Neill L-5 space habitats from the 1970s.