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Weekend: Alien Life Forms Breeding Away in USC Labs

January 24, 2015
“Some of the best evidence for life in space lives right here on Earth: It’s weird, adaptable, and far hardier than we ever thought.” —Alissa Zhu Panspermia is the ancient idea that the seeds of life exist everywhere in the... continued

“The opposite of addiction is not sobriety. It is human connection.”

January 23, 2015
The title of this news summary is a direct quote from Johann Hari, a man who grew up in a family of addicts. Hari undertook a 3-½ year, 30,000-mile journey to understand the causes of addiction and the failures of... continued

A Home Away from Home?

January 22, 2015
Since March of 2009, the Kepler Space Observatory has been exploring our region of the Milky Way so that scientists at NASA can discover more Earth-like planets orbiting stars and estimate how many of the billions of stars in our... continued

Will AI Outmode U ‘n I?

January 21, 2015
In 1920 Czech writer Karel Kapek wrote a science-fiction play whose title translated into English as Rossum’s Universal Robots or R.U.R. When it premiered in 1921, it introduced the word ‘Robot’ to the English language and to the science fiction... continued

Is Running a Marathon Good for Your Health? Scientists Plan to Find Out!

January 19, 2015
Last Friday, January 16th, a dozen runners set off on a 3,080-mile marathon that will take them approximately 4.5 months to complete. No one will be surprised to learn that the starting point for this extreme endeavor is California. The... continued

Subscriber Area Returned to Service

January 19, 2015
The Unknowncountry subscriber area has been returned to service, but login from the mobile site is not working. To login from the mobile site, go to the main site by pulling down the menu on the upper right, clicking on 'Go... continued

Weekender: Black Holes to Rip Galaxy Apart–or has It Already Happened?

January 17, 2015
Two supermassive black holes are circlling each other--or they were, a million years ago, in a galaxy far away. In all probability, that galaxy is now being torn apart by the titanic equivalent of 100 million supernovas. So, did any... continued

From Toilet to Tap

January 16, 2015
The possibility of solving two of the most pressing problems in developing countries at the same time – inadequate supplies of pure drinking water and inadequate waste disposal systems – may now be at hand. For the Omniprocessor – designed... continued

Rethinking Rapa Nui

January 15, 2015
The mysteries of Rapa Nui – or Easter Island – have puzzled explorers, tourists and scientists for centuries. When was it first settled? Where did the settlers come from? How did they carve and move the moai – the giant... continued

Precision Targeting of Cancer Cells May Soon Be Coming Your Way

January 14, 2015
One of the most destructive dilemmas in warfare – be it military or medical – is the ‘collateral damage’ inadvertently inflicted on innocent bystanders. The ‘gold standard’ in both arenas is precision delivery of the ‘payload’ to the target. In... continued