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| Life Without Water? |
| Topic: Titan |
03/18/10 |
| On Saturn’s giant moon Titan, it is so cold that water is frozen as hard as granite. And yet there is a complete liquid cycle of methane and ethane. Scientists wonder whether there could also be life. |
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| Avatars in Space |
| Topic: Robotics & A.I. |
03/15/10 |
| At this year's Oscars, there was a great deal of buzz surrounding the science fiction epic, Avatar. The movie focuses on human explorers virtually immersing themselves in the environment of a distant world through the eyes and body of an avatar. The movie may be science fiction, but the concepts behind avatars in space exploration are based in science fact. |
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| Getting WISE About Nemesis |
| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
03/11/10 |
| Is our Sun part of a binary star system? An unseen companion star, nicknamed “Nemesis,” may be sending comets towards Earth. If Nemesis exists, NASA’s new WISE telescope should be able to spot it. |
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| Avatar’s New Twist on Plants |
| Topic: Alien Life |
03/04/10 |
| Although they're not nominated for an Academy Award, plants play a central role in the blockbuster movie "Avatar." A botanist provided the science behind how these unusual organisms may have evolved. |
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| First Fossil-Makers in Hot Water |
| Topic: Origin & Evolution of Life |
03/01/10 |
| Microbe mats in Yellowstone's hot springs may be living analogs of the primordial microbe communities that constructed the oldest rock fossils on Earth. |
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| Shooting Meteorites in a Barrel |
| Topic: Meteorites, Comets and Asteroids |
02/25/10 |
| High-impact lab experiments simulate whether the building blocks of life could have survived the rough arrival on Earth via meteorite impact. |
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| A Drop in the Bucket |
| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
02/18/10 |
| A new technique is being developed to detect water in the protoplanetary disks of other solar systems. If successful, it would help in our understanding of how habitable planets form. |
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| Detecting Our Martian Cousins |
| Topic: Mars |
02/15/10 |
| The possibility that life was shared between Earth and Mars could be tested with a DNA analyzer. One research team has built a prototype and plans field tests on a South American volcano. |
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| Bringing the Definition of ‘Life’ to Closure |
| Topic: Origin & Evolution of Life |
02/11/10 |
| In the search for life beyond Earth, we should not expect to find life forms we’re familiar with. Determining whether something completely alien is ‘alive’ could be a challenge, so a universal definition of life is needed. Biologists have yet to agree on a definition, but a new theory attempts to provide a solution. |
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| More Money, and a New Path to the Stars |
| Topic: Moon to Mars |
02/02/10 |
| The Obama Administration plans to cancel NASA’s Constellation program that was to take American astronauts back to the Moon. Instead, NASA will oversee a competition among commercial space developers to come up with the technology to reach the stars. |
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