In November, NASA tapped nine private spaceflight companies who will be allowed to bid on upcoming projects. Yesterday, they elaborated on what those projects would be during an industry forum. Starting as early as this year, NASA hopes to send commercial landers to the lunar surface as the first step toward returning to the moon, this time for good. Long Lunar To-Do List There’s a lot of work to be done before permanent or long-term lunar activities can begin. The first tasks will be to p ...read more

Climate change is real. It’s happening now. And it presents significant problems for the U.S. across multiple facets of society, according to a panel of climate and policy experts that testified before the House Science, Space and Technology Committee Wednesday in Washington, D.C. The testimonials were part of the House Science Committee's first full hearing of the 116th Congress and one of only a handful in the last eight years to address climate change. But that's about to ...read more

I’ll just come right out and say it: Scientists have created human-controlled rat cyborgs. Lest you think this is some media sensationalism at work, here’s the actual title of the paper under discussion, which came out last week in Scientific Reports: “Human Mind Control of Rat Cyborg’s Continuous Locomotion with Wireless Brain-to-Brain Interface.” That pretty much says it all. Some of this tech — such as brain-brain interfaces (BBIs) and rat cyborgs — ...read more

From the NIH/ National Network of Libraries of Medicine Libraries are hubs for discovery and community engagement; imagine your library joining a real-time event with others around the world and contributing to real scientific research to speed up Alzheimer’s research! Citizen Science Day 2019 is Saturday, April 13. You and your library are invited to participate in the Stall Catchers Megathon, in which people all over the world will analyze real research data in a game format that ...read more

It's finally here. This morning, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration made it official: El Niño conditions are present in the tropical Pacific Ocean. There's a 90 percent chance that they'll continue through winter, and a 60 percent chance through spring. True to predictions, this El Niño is a weakling. Climate scientist Emily Becker summarized the situation at the ever-awesome ENSO blog: After several months of flirting, the tropical Pacific ocean and atmosp ...read more

Citizen science (public participation in scientific research) often calls for tools you won’t find lying around the house, such as a rain gauge to record precipitation or an air quality sensor. “I think a database of water quality monitoring tools is something that anyone who samples recreational water quality dreams of: the idea of a one-stop-shop for such information would be incredibly helpful and save a lot of time for the people and volunteers that run water quality monitor ...read more

(Inside Science) -- Perhaps it's not a coincidence that Valentine's Day falls at a chilly time of year. In biological terms, social drives like love may be bound up with the need to keep warm. The same hormone, oxytocin, helps regulate both physical and emotional warmth, increasing body heat and facilitating social bonding. And according to recent research, baby mice deprived of the hormone are less likely to cuddle with other mice or crawl toward heated surfaces. "We're working with i ...read more

(Inside Science) -- In 60 years, the climate of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, will feel kind of like a contemporary Jonesboro, Arkansas, with higher temperatures and more winter precipitation, according to a new study. That's assuming fossil fuel emissions continue to rise; if instead we succeed in curbing emissions, Pittsburgh will instead become more like Madison, Indiana. Pittsburgh is one of 540 cities in the U.S. and Canada for which scientists have found doppelgangers of their climate f ...read more

On January 24, 2004, the Opportunity rover sent back its first signal from the Red Planet. That marked the start of a 90-day planned mission for the six-wheeled, golf cart-sized rover. Fifteen years later, the rover’s mission has finally ended, NASA announced today. Its longevity and discoveries are a testament to Opportunity’s design and construction. The rover ultimately sent back more than 200,000 raw images and traveled a total of 28 miles (45 kilometers), farther than a standar ...read more

The Opportunity rover, like its twin Spirit, was designed for an original mission of just three months. When engineers lost contact on June 10 of last year, it had been exploring for fourteen years. And today, mission scientists finally declared an official end to the mission. Here are just a few of Opportunity's many successes during its long Red Planet expedition. Heat Shield Rock Opportunity discovered the first meteorite on Mars, sitting near its own heat shield. While a few mete ...read more