The International Space Station photographed from Space Shuttle Discovery in March 2009. (NASA)
A Safer Space Ride NASA's next-gen Ares I-X test rocket launches
The fall in cost is due to the increased lifetime, the institute says
How do you do? Coldilocks waves at the camera during a rare swim
New research shows that switching off the North Atlantic circulation can force the Northern hemisphere into a mini 'ice age' in a matter of months. Previous work has indicated that this process would take tens of years. (Credit: iStockphoto/Trevor Hunt)
Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart star in "New Moon," the latest production to take advantage of the eternal fascination with vampires. Credit: Summit Entertainment
Tiny discs attach to the membranes of cancer cells and are then spun with an alternating magnetic field to disrupt the membrane. Credit: Nature
From Discover Magazine:
The Air Force hopes its unmanned X-37 (in taxi tests in 2007)
A Self-Sufficient Energy Mix Wind turbines deployed in conjunction with solar energy and a series of furnaces burning straw and wood chips manage to heat and power the entire island of Samso with energy to spare. Harvey McDaniel 
5: Tianhe-1. 563 teraflops
From BBC News:
Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Photograph: Jay Directo/AFP/Getty Images
From Times Online:
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color (photo-like) image on November 23, 2009. Saunders, Montagu, and Bristol Islands, part of the South Sandwich chain, all trigger V-shaped waves. Credit: NASA, Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center
From NPR:
The International Space Station is visible against the Earth's horizon and the blackness of space in this image photographed by an STS-129 crew member on Atlantis Nov. 25, 2009, in this photo released by NASA. Flight controllers in mission control at the Johnson Space Center are crunching numbers, calculating the odds of the International Space Station getting hit by a piece of space junk. (NASA/Reuters)
From Alpha Galileo:
From Florida Today:
In 1967, four months after delivery, the new A-37A entered combat in South Vietnam.
Out of this world: This is what the SeaOrbiter will look like -
From Science Daily:
From Live Science:
Soyuz Spacecraft
A city slides into the sea in a scene from the movie 2012, to be released November 13, 2009. The movie's end-of-the-world plot is based on largely discredited prophecies dubiously attributed to the ancient Maya, experts say. Image courtesy Columbia Tristar Marketing Group
Dust devils like this one form frequently at Eldorado Valley.
The awe-inspiring McCarty Glacier in Alaska and now (below)
Whether the causes of the warming are due to natural rhythms or down to man continues to provide fierce debate. But scientists say they give a face to global warming.
Arc-part tunnel for Neutrino Experimental Facility at the J-PARC accelerator laboratory in Tokai, Japan. (Credit: Courtesy of J-PARC.)
From CNET News:
This Week’s Question: I have to have cataract surgery and I’m a little frightened. Should I be?
I don’t know anyone who isn’t a little frightened by surgery of any kind, but cataract removal is one of the safest and most effective types of surgery. It’s also one of the most common operations performed in the United States. About 9 out of 10 people who have the surgery have improved vision.
A cataract is a clouding of the lens, the clear part of the eye that helps focus images like the lens in a camera. Cataracts can blur images and discolor them.
Read more ....
CO2 emissions will be on top of the agenda at the Copenhagen summit in December Photo: Getty 
Looking backward, evolutionary theory—popularized by Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, published in 1859—has traced humanity's roots to fossil apes. Now, 150 years later, scientists are looking forward and seeing a range of evolutionary futures for humans. Will our descendants be muscle-bound cyborgs? Electronic immortals? Or is human evolution dead? Photograph by Rebecca Hale, NGS
Made to fit
'Tiger Stripe' Terrain Cassini/CICLOPS 
The costs are pre-subsidy, so they could be much lower if you take better government subsidies into account.
But it isn’t only solar that’s down in cost. It’s other renewable energy sources, too.
The research company found that equipment costs (in solar, wind, and other sectors) decreased throughout the year but these were offset by increasing financing costs. However, equipment prices are expected to continue falling whereas the financing market is expected to get better.
A dummy goes into the magnetic resonance scanner Photo: Reuters 
A special isolation facility hosts the Mars500 study. (Credit: ESA - S. Corvaja)
Moments before the deadly blow. The raised fin is about to come crashing down like a karate chop on a shark (circled). It has been driven to the surface by the orca before this coup de grace.
