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NASA’s Opportunity rover found a rock on Mars that no scientist has ever seen before?except here on Earth. It’s similar to meteorites that have come from Mars and impacted the Earth. Many scientists now think that life traveled from Mars to Earth in the form bacteria riding on meteorites, making us all Martians.

Scientists know that about 20 known meteorites came from Mars because the bubbles of gas trapped inside them match the Martian atmosphere. But similar rocks have never been seen on the surface of Mars until now. NASA’s Christian Schroeder says, “There is a striking similarity in spectra.”
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Six-year-old James Leininger may be the reincarnation of a 21-year-old Navy fighter pilot who was shot down over the Pacific by the Japanese during World War II. James’ parents Andrea and Bruce say they are “probably the people least likely to have a scenario like this pop up in their lives.” So what has convinced them it’s true? James liked to play with toy planes from an early age, but by age two, they started giving him nightmares. Andrea says, “I’d wake him up and he’d be screaming [saying] “Airplane crash on fire, little man can’t get out.” In a home video when he was three, James seems to be doing a sophisticate preflight check.read more

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Most of us feel that the new Homeland Security measures we read about (and experience at the airport) are worth it if they protect us from terrorists. In the April 1st issue of the London Review of Books, Richard Rorty writes that ?within a year or two, suitcase-sized nuclear weapons (crafted in Pakistan or North Korea) may be commercially available. If terrorists do get their hands on nuclear weapons, the most momentous result will not be the death of hundreds of thousands of people. It will be the fact that all the democracies will have to place themselves on a permanent war footing.
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You already know that automobile exhaust pollutes the outside environment. But did you know that the air INSIDE your car is also dangerously polluted? A study of highway patrol troopers shows that spending too much time inside your car can be bad for your heart.

Jennifer Warner writes that while air pollution levels inside cars are lower than the levels outside, they’re still bad, and can cause cardiovascular problems such as blood clotting and variations in your heart beat. This happened to nine healthy North Carolina state highway patrol troopers who spent all day in their cars.
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