Science
Cassini-Huygens spacecraft begins systematic exploration of Saturn system
By Patrick Martin, July 26, 2004
The successful passage of the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft through Saturn’s rings June 30-July 1 sets the stage for an unprecedented four-year exploration of the second largest planet in the solar...
Intriguing new discoveries on Mars
By Frank Gaglioti, March 24, 2004
The current National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) mission to Mars has already provided significant new evidence that the planet may in the past have been considerably warmer and possess...
Scientific triumph on Mars as Spirit lands and explores surface
By Walter Gilberti, January 19, 2004
On Thursday, January 15 the Mars Spirit rover rolled onto the Martian landscape for the first time, after NASA scientists successfully maneuvered the six-wheeled vehicle off the lander, and away from ...
The Columbia Space Shuttle disaster: science and the profit system
Part 3—Political and economic causes underlying the accident
By Joseph Kay, September 22, 2003
On February 1, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia was destroyed upon reentry into the earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven crew members. Shortly after the incident, the Columbia Accident Investig...
The Columbia Space Shuttle disaster: science and the profit system
Part 2: Schedule pressures undermined safety considerations
By Joseph Kay, September 20, 2003
On February 1, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia was destroyed upon reentry into the earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven crew members. Shortly after the incident, the Columbia Accident Investig...
The Columbia Space Shuttle disaster: science and the profit system
Part 1: The physical cause of the accident and the decay of shuttle infrastructure
By Joseph Kay, September 19, 2003
On February 1, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia was destroyed upon reentry into the earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven crew members. Shortly after the incident, the Columbia Accident Investig...
Oldest modern human fossil discovered in Ethiopia
By Frank Gaglioti, July 25, 2003
A team of 45 scientists from 14 different countries led by Professor Tim White from Berkeley University has uncovered and assembled three fossilised skulls from Ethiopia that provide the oldest record...
Russian mathematician announces proof of celebrated Poincaré Conjecture
By Alex Lefebvre, June 3, 2003
In early April 2002, Dr. Grigori Perelman of the Steklov Institute of Mathematics in St. Petersburg gave a series of public lectures at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the lectures he ex...
Human Genome Project completed: an extraordinary scientific achievement
By Frank Gaglioti, May 7, 2003
The publication of the detailed structure of 99 percent of the human genome on April 14 is the culmination of one of the largest scientific undertakings in history. Initiated in 1990, the Human Genome...
New DNA research points to origins of dogs
By Sandy English, January 14, 2003
A recent issue of the American journal Science has reported new DNA evidence indicating that humans first bred domesticated dogs approximately 15,000 years ago in east Asia.
New fossil may revise the timeline for hominid evolution
By Walter Gilberti, August 14, 2002
A new fossil discovery has thrown the widely accepted time and place for the divergence of the evolutionary lines of humans and chimpanzees into somewhat of a turmoil. Working in southern Chad in cent...
On the death of paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould
By Walter Gilberti, July 1, 2002
Stephen Jay Gould, the well-known Harvard paleontologist and noted defender of the theory of evolution, died last month from the effects of cancer, at the age of 60. Throughout much of his adult life,...
