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Ares lift-off a success
Next generation rocket to replace shuttle
Earlier this week, on an immense launching pad at Cape Canaveral, $445 million waited on the weather.
On Wednesday morning at 11:30, after multiple delays underneath too-cloudy skies, NASA’s latest rocket, the Ares 1-X, finally lifted off in a two-minute test flight. The flight had been initially scheduled for Tuesday, during a four-hour launch window from 8 A.M. to noon; however, cloudy skies, high winds and a threat of rain kept the rocket grounded until the same launch window on Wednesday.
The weather needed to be ideal — NASA would have preferred pristine skies — to help ground cameras track the trajectory of the short flight, to determine things like maximum altitude and distance. Wednesday’s conditions, though not pristine, were deemed good enough to proceed with the launch.
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 Trojan trick a threat
U.S. armaments could fall prey What could bring down an American nuclear warhead? A Trojan Horse, of course.
The name Trojan Horse is a reference to Homer’s story, “The Fall of Troy.” In the story, the Greeks feign surrender and give Troy the gift of a large wooden horse. But the horse is actually the hiding place of Greek soldiers who enter the city when the Trojans accept the gift. The Greeks then proceed to ruin the Trojans’ victory celebration by slaughtering them in the night.
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 Though electricity is notoriously dangerous and personal contact with it is normally avoided, scientists are currently using electroconvulsive therapy to treat severe depression.
Some cases of depression are resistant to treatment and are so severe they cause patients to lose the ability to function outside of a hospital. Such cases are being successfully treated thanks to the surprising effects electricity has on the brain.
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They say the brain is a powerful tool.
And indeed it is. Studies have been done looking at how positive thinking affects the entire body, and the results have been overwhelming.
Gail Ironson, a professor at the University of Miami, has been particularly been interested in what kind of effect praying or meditating daily has on HIV/AIDS patients. Being ...
Scientists surveying American Samoa’s coral reefs say Sept. 29’s tsunami obliterated some corals and damaged others to the point that they may not recover.
Researchers say more assessments will be needed to get a full sense of how the disaster affected coral in the U.S. territory. But in at least one area, the damage was so severe, and the affected area already in such bad shape before the tsunamis, that the coral may never return.