Falcon Launch

Summary: Space X's new Falcon 9 rocket launched this Sunday. It is carrying Canada's Cassiope research satellite, designed to study the sun's interaction with the Earth's atmosphere. This is also the first time it has launched at Vandenburg in California instead of at Cape Canaveral.



BBC News


Unrelated: Brian Cox is beginning a new documentary series called Science Britannica that is spectacular thus far.

3D printing in Space

Summary: Ever on the quest to make space travel more cost efficient while increasing our in orbit capabilities, NASA has decided to bestow a 3D printer upon the astronauts aboard the ISS. This will help provide faster custom solutions instead of having to resort to crazy gaffe tape and plastic bag solutions.

I personally, am very exited. Not only is this very time efficient, watching a 3D printer do its thing is very entertaining. 

BBC News

Smallest Shadow

Summary: Scientists have been able to photograph the shadow of an atom! There are some science-y implications that could follow this, but basically it is just super cool.




National Geographic

The Women Who Mapped the Universe

Summary: Pickering's Harem is what they were know collectively as; only a few are remembered individually. These are the women that helped to catalog the universe and organized all the astrophotography done at the Harvard observatory in the early days. Pickering used his human computers for largely clerical duties: reducing the photographs, comparing the stars to other already classified stars, or cataloging the pictures themselves. Despite this they did perform the important work that helped the universe be classified.

One of the few individuals to be remembered is Annie Jump Cannon. She is responsible for the system of classifying stars that the International Astronomical Union still uses today. However, she did not actually get any recognition as the system was dubbed the Harvard system of spectral classification.




Smithsonian

Anti Neutrinos and new flavors

Summary: Neutrinos are particles that tend to switch identities (flavors) and an underground particle detector in China is helping to provide more information on these weird particles. They do this by creating mikllions of quadrillions of electron antineutrinos. That's right, finally another article that relates to antimatter! The Daya Bay neutrino oscillation data has helped researchers to pin down the probability of of the electron neutrino occupying each possible mass state.

The studying of neutrino oscillations may also provide new clues to the great mystery of the matter-antimatter unbalance in our universe.

All of these findings and more will be presented this week at NuFact2013 in Bejing.



Live Science

Extreme science jobs

Summary: This feature present 7 extreme science jobs from saturation diver to astronaut to crocodile physiologist. It is a very short but interesting read that demonstrates the wide variety of jobs available within the larger science label.




Live Science

Area 51 secret documents

Summary: For those of you who like mysteries, the CIA has released documents that reveal some of the history of the research base. It began being used in 1955 to test new planes and train pilots. Unsurprisingly, the document only talks about events that happened prior to 1974.

Are you excited to read what has been hidden from us?


Live Science