Cosmic Log

Suborbital science goes public

2009-11-24T01:45:00Z

	Blue Origin
	Click for video: New Shepard flies in Blue Origin video from 2006, used with permission.

Amazon.com billionaire Jeff Bezos' usually secretive Blue Origin rocket venture raised the curtain today on three research experiments that are slated to take suborbital journeys on its prototype spaceship in two years' time.

For years, Blue Origin has been working on a vertical-launched rocket that could someday take passengers on an automated trip beyond 62 miles (100 kilometers) in altitude. That's beyond the boundary of outer space - at a height where passengers could see the blue, curving Earth beneath the blackness of space, and experience a few minutes of weightlessness.

Blue Origin's engineers have flown their New Shepard prototype craft through several low-altitude tests at Bezos' hush-hush launch facility near Van Horn, Texas. But details about any of the tests beyond the first one have been hard to come by.

...(read more)

Daily dose of science on the Web

2009-11-24T00:40:00Z

CollectSpace: Hubble instruments become museum artifacts Slashdot: After 35 years, Arecibo talks to E.T. again Science News: Climate might be right for a deal Chandra Blog: Carnival of Space 130 ...(read more)

Play the galactic slots

2009-11-24T00:01:00Z

NASA / STScI

The galaxies NGC 2207 (left) and IC 2163 are entangled in a picture from the
Hubble Space Telescope. Such mergers are the focus of Galaxy Zoo's latest project.

Galaxy Zoo's latest online research project is a "cosmic slot machine" that asks users to match up simulations of galactic smash-ups with pictures of the real things. The payoff? That comes in the form of citizen science.

...(read more)

Chair floats to final frontier

2009-11-20T19:45:00Z

Toshiba UK

Click for video: An armchair floats to the edge of space in Toshiba's "Space
Chair Project" commercial. Click on the image to see Toshiba's video on YouTube.

Space ballooning hits new heights in an HDTV commercial showing a simple armchair floating against the backdrop of our curving planet, almost 100,000 feet above the ground. When you watch the video, the first thought that comes to mind is, "Wow, that's cool!" And the second thought is probably, "How the heck did they do that?"

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Weekend field trips on the Web

2009-11-20T17:37:00Z

CollectSpace: 'The Rock' speaks out for NASA (and 'Planet 51') Fedline: Nuclear agency tries to find dates for its geeks Tech Review: Watch a molecular machine in action 'Nova' on PBS: 'What Are Dreams?' ...(read more)

Big pictures of tiny wonders

2009-11-19T14:10:00Z

	Jan Michels
	Click for slideshow: Feast your eyes on Olympus BioScapes winners for 2009.

Who would have thought that a water flea, diseased neurons and poisoned algae could be so beautiful? It's just a matter of having the right perspective.

The flea, the neurons and the algae are among the stars of the show in this year's Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition. The contest is just one of several conducted annually to highlight scientific imagery that puts a fresh perspective on subjects that, under other circumstances, might seem commonplace or even repellent.

Take the water flea, for example.

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X marks the galactic spot

2009-11-18T14:44:00Z

NASA / ESA

An ethereal "X" or boxlike structure marks the chaotic center of the edge-on
galaxy NGC 4710. Click on the picture for a larger version.

One of the "X-Files" that astronomers keep in their filing cabinets relates to the mysterious X shape seen at the center of some galaxies — but this particular mystery may be close to being explained.

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Daily dose of science on the Web

2009-11-18T13:35:00Z

Space Elevator Games set for 2010: This time, it's personal Wired Science: The building of a high-tech eco-stunt New Scientist: NASA seeks its one true glove WSJ: Moon-water gamble has paid off Tiny Mantras: Carnival of Space 129 ...(read more)

Stellar views of meteor show

2009-11-17T21:45:00Z

Malcolm Park

A fireball seems to shoot right through a house in Grafton, Ontario. Malcolm Park
captured the image as he was setting up to photograph meteors on Monday night.

This week's Leonid meteor shower may not rise to the level of a shooting-star storm, but it's certainly producing a flurry of fine-looking pictures.

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The scent of a dead celeb?

2009-11-17T16:25:00Z

	Hulton Archive / Getty Images file
	A new line of fragrance is inspired by Marilyn Monroe's DNA.

A venture that uses the DNA from Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson and other dead celebrities to mix up personality-driven fragrances is getting more than a whiff of publicity - but if you're expecting a touch of "Marilyn" to make you smell like the real Marilyn, you have no nose for science.

MyDNAFragrance's "Antiquity" line of perfumery appears to be the latest marketing gimmick driven by genetics, along the lines of DNA art, protein-coded music and (heh, heh) celebrity DNA samples.

The venture does use the celebrities' DNA code, after a fashion, and it does translate that code into a customized scent recipe - so there's certainly no false advertising. But the DNA that's used has absolutely no bearing on what a person smells like, and the DNA itself is not featured in the recipe.

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