Although I said last week that since night is closing in on Antarctica we probably wouldn’t have many more items from the frozen continent we do have one quick item that makes reference to a little problem I wrote about earlier. Satellite research has revealed something a little scary hidden beneath the ice.MORE>>

Well, spring is here and the days are growing longer. But that means I'm not starting with my usual story about Antarctica because for the South Pole it's autumn and the beginning of the long and endless night. It's not so easy to do research in the dark and there probably won't be many more stories out of Antarctica for about six months or so. But you should expect a few more research tales from the North Pole before too long! So instead of traveling to the land of snow and ice; let's travel to the land of snow and ice .MORE>>

I thought I’d start with a story that’s near and dear to my heart. It’s been a great disappointment to me that humans didn’t follow up on the space successes of the ‘60’s and ‘70’s. Of course, they weren’t really ‘space’ successes, they were ‘war’ successes and the collapse of the Soviet Union removed any more competition. And in case you were wondering why our government has decided that humans should once again venture beyond low Earth orbit, you have only to realize that China is planning to put their astronauts on the Moon.MORE>>

An international team of scientists representing six institutions, including Texas A&M University, has succeeded in establishing a new astronomical observatory at Dome Argus on the highest point of the Antarctic Plateau, four kilometers above sea level. There is very little wind at Dome Argus and since the installation is 400 miles from the nearest habitation, you don’t have to worry much about light pollution either..MORE>>

We’ll start this week with a little news from outer space. Several years ago; the Stardust mission was launched to sample the material given off by a melting comet; specifically Comet Wild 2 (named for the gentleman who discovered it). Astronomers were eager to examine material from comets because they are thought to have formed far from the Sun and to be unchanged remnants of the ice, gas and dust cloud that formed our solar system and Sun.MORE>>

With a couple of stories from the deep south. Antarctica is a wonderful place, but given my extreme allergy to cold weather, I suspect it will always have to do without me. However, the health of that ice cap is important to the whole world and there’s some interesting and disturbing news from there. Dive in and join us on THE DEEP! MORE>>

Continuing its pattern of intermittent activity, Anatahan Volcano released more ash and steam on February 10, 2008. The MODIS on NASA’s Aqua satellite took this picture the same day. This picture shows the volcano plume meandering away from the volcano toward the northwest, spreading out as it goes.MORE>>

Australian scientists have recently discovered something interesting about ancient Asian and Pacific trading routes. They’ve discovered that virtually all the jade found all over Southeast Asia, the islands of Indonesia and Malaysia and Australia come from mines in Taiwan. .. Dive in and join us on THE DEEP! MORE>>

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health are predicting a dire consequence from global warming (see, I can’t do one of these articles without at least mentioning it!); the spread of dengue fever into the mainland US. Dengue was previously confined to the tropics but it’s becoming a serious problem along the U.S.-Mexico border and in our sister colony, Puerto Rico.. .. Dive in and join us on THE DEEP! MORE>>

It can crush ice sideways and stay precisely on station to an accuracy of three feet. It can drill a hole 3,000 feet deep into the seabed while floating 15,000 feet above it and it can generate 55 megawatts of power..Dive in and join us on THE DEEP! MORE>>

The MESSENGER spacecraft has just performed a very close fly-by of Mercury. This fly-by will be used to help slow the spacecraft down with an eye toward eventually going into orbit around Mercury. .. We will wrap up the week, with a method on how to boost the vegies nutrients in accordance of proper cooking. Dive in and join us on THE DEEP! MORE>>

The MESSENGER spacecraft is scheduled to make the closest flyby of the smallest planet Mercury since the Mariner 10 spacecraft flew by the Sun-scarred world over 30 years ago. We will take a look at what we expect to learn from her passing. From there, we will move farther out into the solor system to look and some hot spots on Saturn, then back Earth for some earthquake news and a bit more on global warming.. We will wrap up the week, with a thin polymer bio-film that seals surgical wounds and could make ugly surgical scars a relic of medical history. Dive in and join us on THE DEEP! MORE>>

Some 40,000 walruses have appeared on the Russian Arctic coast, a phenomenon that scientists believe is a result of global warming melting Arctic sea ice. According to the World Wildlife Foundation, this is the largest walrus haul out (areas where walruses rest when they are out of the water) ever seen in the Russian Arctic. From there, we will move on to The Little Robot who could...Does!, Eternal Light Eternal Night, Quelling the Cough, Like Mama Like Baby and we will round out the week with and Online Library that gives readers access to 1.5 MILLION books. There’s just not enough hours in the day! MORE>>

We’ll start the first column of the New Year with what’s closest to my heart (and my job!); a little space news.  We’re always wondering if the aliens are here (they aren’t) or if they are going to contact us (probably not), but there’s new evidence that they may be much closer than we ever dreamed possible. From there, we move on to The Little Robot Who Could, A Big Flood and learn about the Fish Turns Geologist. We will then hear about; Giant Scorpions, Getting and accurate storm count and revisit the Flightless Bird. This weeks extravaganza will finish up with some medical news on a Novel Cause for Migranes and Ways to increase your medicines effectiveness. Fasten your seatbelts, departure is imenant! MORE>>