August 24, 2007

• Two research groups demonstrate out-of-body experience
  Out-of-body experience
  An out-of-body experience is an experience that typically involves a sensation of floating outside of one's body and, in some cases, perceiving one's physical body from a place outside one's body ....
  
  s in human volunteers using conflicting visual-somatosensory input. (BBC)

August 23, 2007

• Chororapithecus abyssinicus
  Chororapithecus abyssinicus
  Chororapithecus abyssinicus was an ape that lived about during the Miocene Epoch. It is believed to be the earliest known species of gorilla...
  
  , a 10 million year old fossil found in Ethiopia
  Ethiopia
  Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
  
  , may prove that the last common ancestor of gorilla
  Gorilla
  Gorillas are the largest extant species of primates. They are ground-dwelling, predominantly herbivorous apes that inhabit the forests of central Africa. Gorillas are divided into two species and either four or five subspecies...
  
  s and human
  Human
  Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
  
  s existed 2 million years earlier than previously thought.(Nature)

August 20, 2007

• The genetic sequence of the Pinot noir
  Pinot Noir
  Pinot noir is a black wine grape variety of the species Vitis vinifera. The name may also refer to wines created predominantly from Pinot noir grapes...
  
   grape is uncoded by French researchers.(news@nature.com)

August 8, 2007

• Endeavour
  Space Shuttle Endeavour
  Space Shuttle Endeavour is one of the retired orbiters of the Space Shuttle program of NASA, the space agency of the United States. Endeavour was the fifth and final spaceworthy NASA space shuttle to be built, constructed as a replacement for Challenger...
  
  lifts off from Kennedy Space Center
  Kennedy Space Center
  The John F. Kennedy Space Center is the NASA installation that has been the launch site for every United States human space flight since 1968. Although such flights are currently on hiatus, KSC continues to manage and operate unmanned rocket launch facilities for America's civilian space program...
  
   for the STS-118
  STS-118
  - Crew notes :Astronaut Clayton Anderson originally was slated to be launched to the ISS on this mission, but was moved to STS-117. His replacement was Alvin Drew....
  
   assembly mission of the International Space Station
  International Space Station
  The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...
  
  . (CNN)

August 7, 2007

• The Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey
  Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey
  The Trans-atlantic Exoplanet Survey or TrES, uses three 4-inch telescopes located at Lowell Observatory, Palomar Observatory, and the Canary Islands to locate exoplanets. It was made using the network of small, relatively inexpensive telescopes designed to look specifically for planets orbiting...
  
   announces the discovery of a new exoplanet, designated TrES-4
  TrES-4
  TrES-4b is an extrasolar planet discovered in 2006 and announced in 2007 by the Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey using the transit method. It is away in the constellation Hercules....
  
  , using the transit technique. Calculations indicate that it is larger than any other previously detected planet. (BBCNews)

August 6, 2007

• International Atomic Energy Agency
  International Atomic Energy Agency
  The International Atomic Energy Agency is an international organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. The IAEA was established as an autonomous organization on 29 July 1957...
  
   inspectors examine the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant
  Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant
  The is a large, modern nuclear power plant on a 4.2-square-kilometer site including land in the towns of Kashiwazaki and Kariwa in Niigata Prefecture, Japan on the coast of the Sea of Japan, from where it gets cooling water...
  
   in Japan
  Japan
  Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
  
  . (AFP via ABC News Australia)

August 4, 2007

• NASA
  NASA
  The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
  
   launches the Phoenix Mars Lander which is due to land in Planum Boreum
  Planum Boreum
  Planum Boreum is the northern polar plain on Mars. It extends northward from roughly 80°N and is centered at . Surrounding the high polar plain is a flat and featureless lowland plain called Vastitas Borealis which extends for approximately 1500 kilometres southwards, dominating the northern...
  
   on the Martian
  Martian
  As an adjective, the term martian is used to describe anything pertaining to the planet Mars.However, a Martian is more usually a hypothetical or fictional native inhabitant of the planet Mars. Historically, life on Mars has often been hypothesized, although there is currently no solid evidence of...
  
  northern ice cap next year. (AP via Washington Post)