For nearly half a century, three small rocks have sat quietly, waiting for a world that could appreciate them. The astronauts who picked up these rocks on the moon's surface didn't know them to be any more special than the hundreds of pounds of other rocks they collected. But NASA, confident that science would advance, preserved them in their pristine state, hoping to discover new things not available with 1970s technology.
And now, the future has arrived. NASA has selected nine teams ...read more
Researchers have found two massive young stars nestled closer together than anything astronomers have seen so far. By studying PDS 27 and its companion, located about 8,000 light-years from Earth, astronomers hope to learn more about how stars like this form and evolve.
Something like half the stars in our galaxy orbit in pairs, triplets or even quadruple star systems. And scientists suspect that nearly all of them may form in multiples before splitting apart as they age. This is because ...read more
For decades, Piri Welcsh has had professional and personal stakes in understanding the genetics of breast cancer.
In the 1990s, the molecular geneticist participated in an international race to clone BRCA1, the first gene linked to breast cancer risk, and she works to this day in the lab of pioneering breast cancer geneticist Mary-Claire King at the University of Washington.
And then there’s Welcsh’s own family. Her grandmother died of breast cancer, her mother is a breast cancer ...read more
For most animals, sex time is obvious. During the fertile phase of their reproductive cycles, females go into heat. They act, smell and look different, sending an unambiguous signal to males: “Come impregnate me.”
But what about humans? Women have sex throughout their menstrual cycles, and don’t show conspicuous outward changes around ovulation — the time of month when pregnancy can occur.
Yet many researchers think there are subtle clues that a lady is in her fertile w ...read more
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine was at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday to talk about the proposed NASA budget for 2020.
While Bridenstine referred to the Trump administration's proposed NASA budget as “strong,” and emphasized that funding for spaceflight exploration is high, the budget proposal also strikes funding from some missions. And, in total, it allocates $500 million less than what Congress appropriated for NASA last year.
Congress, not the executive ...read more
