From Live Science:
In the next few years, the VASIMR ion engine could be used to
From The BBC:
Half of this year's Nobel Prize in Physics went to Charles K. Kao, center. The other half of the prize was shared by two researchers at Bell Labs, Willard S. Boyle, left, and George E. Smith. Reuters
From The BBC:
A diver swims inside the passages that lay below Peacock Springs State Park in Florida
Image: Glowing DNA: A CCD camera sensor captures the glow of hairpin-shaped DNA nanosensors when they bind with a target gene sequence of anthrax bacteria. Credit: Benjamin Miller, University of Rochester Medical Center 
The electron density of states on a grain boundary of defects. The arrows (pointing in the reader's direction) indicate the direction of the magnetic moments. (Credit: Kees Flipse, Eindhoven University of Technology)
Chicago's City Hall got a green roof in 2001. The project was designed to test various concepts and methods and to test the benefits. Credit: Wikipedia Commons
Another fast ball... how predictable (Image: Rex Features)
The pyrolysis tube at the system's heart can consume 100kg of waste per hour
Photo: The 'nano magnets' wipe out the cancer cells without harming the surrounding tissue
Photo: Tim Morris 
Professor Justin St John, who has left the UK for Australia (left); Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, of the MRC, which turned down one licence-holder (right). REX
Photo: Rocket science: Franklin Chang Diaz (top) is a former NASA astronaut and founder of Ad Astra Rocket Company. The company has developed a prototype plasma rocket, the VX-200 (bottom), that recently achieved 201 kilowatts of power.
The first drawing of the Moon through a telescope, dated July 26, 1609, by Thomas Harriot. This crude but historic sketch roughly delineates the terminator, the line that marks the boundary between day and night on the lunar surface. The original image is a little more than 15 cm across. The dark patches correspond to Mare Crisium (at the top), Mare Tranquilitatis and Mare Foecunditatis. © Lord EgremontRecent findings of water on the lunar surface could spur yet another shift in the way we see our orbiting companion.
The moon appears in early art thousands of years ago, showing that early man was as enthralled by its eerie glow as later philosophers and scientists.
A new study suggests that a single gene, called GSK-3, controls the signals that determine how many neurons actually end up composing the brain. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of North Carolina School of Medicine)
From Live Science:
ELIXIR OF LIFE: Finding evidence of water in the solar system and beyond is an important signpost for the presence of life. Liquid water is a solvent, a medium and a catalyst for certain types of proteins, and essential to biological processes. © ISTOCKPHOTO.COM
Speaking of black holes, what could be stranger?
Heliosphere Bubble The sun's weakening magnetic bubbles lets more cosmic rays
The statue of Alfred Nobel at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Photo AFP
From CNET:
The terrible Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004 was just the latest and greatest mega-wave to wash over the planet. It taught us a lot, however, though we have lots more to learn. Photo credit: NASA
From The BBC:
Figure 1. A 53-year-old patient experiencing sporadic discomfort undergoes a coronary angiogram. The results are ominous. Severe stenosis (narrowing) is visible in the pinched regions (top middle), indicating the buildup of fatty deposits within the artery. If a wandering clot blocks the pinhole opening of a nearly clogged vessel, a heart attack ensues. With bloodflow blocked, cardiac cells downstream are starved for oxygen, leading to drastic metabolic changes as the cells struggle to survive. The most important changes affect mitochondria, the powerhouses of cell metabolism. The inset shows mitochondria (orange) arrayed among cardiac muscle fibrils (blue), where they are positioned to supply a steady stream of ATP to contracting muscle. Under oxidative stress, the mitochondria can also release potent effectors that lead directly to apoptosis—cell suicide. The trigger for the opening of the so-called mitochondrial death channels is, ironically, the return of oxygen to starved tissue during reperfusion. Learning to control the activities of the death channels could vastly improve the outlook for heart attack victims.
The well-exposed layering of basalt flows in formations near Lake Superior is aiding scientific understanding of the geomagnetic field in ancient times. Nicholas Swanson-Hysell, a Princeton graduate student, examines the details of the top of a lava flow. (Credit: Photo by Catherine Rose)
If you want to know what the hot looks will be a decade further on,
(Click Image to Enlarge)
From New Scientist:
Image: HP ProBook 5310m starts at $699: this class of business laptop used to start at well over $1,000. (Credit: Hewlett-Packard)
Ulysses: A statue of Ulysses, also known as the famous Greek epic hero Odysseus. A 'mini-Colosseum' that lies beneath an airport may have hosted Roman emperors. With the help of ground penetrating radar, the archaeologists have uncovered luxuriously decorated rooms, a colonnaded garden, and this finely carved marble head, among other artifacts. University of Southampton
From The BBC:
Kenyan market vendors selling maize in Kagemi
The robotic Cassini spacecraft which is now orbiting Saturn looked back toward the eclipsed Sun and saw a view unlike any other. CICLOPS, JPL, ESA, NASA
From Science Daily:
Ian Hooton / Corbis
Vincent Van Gogh Photo: AP 
The prehistoric circle has been named Bluehenge after the
Where's the prize for fighting climate change?
Herschel trains two eyes, Pacs and Spire, on our Galaxy's centre. European Space Agency
MALTHUSIAN DILEMMA: How to feed a human population expected to reach 9 billion by 2050 while also grappling with poverty as well as climate change, dead zones, biodiversity loss and other environmental ills? © iStockphoto.com / Tobias Helbig
From RIA Novosti:
