Science News Headline and Article Archive

Nanotech Decoys for Viruses
- Using nanotechnology to stop human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) from entering cells is the ultimate aim of a new project at the University of California, Davis. The researchers hope to create tiny particles that can interfere with the proteins that viruses such as HIV use to attach to cells.
Refueling Rockets
- Could spacecraft powered by a new wax be safer and cheaper? . . The idea of using wax as rocket fuel isn't new. People tried it years ago but couldn't get the wax to work well enough to launch a heavy rocket into space. The engineers now bracing against the roar of their wax-filled engines suspect, however, that their predecessors were indeed onto something. If that's true, paraffin wax could become the world's cheapest, safest, most environmentally friendly rocket fuel.

Week of 23 March 2003

Muon Manna?
- Particle shower may spotlight loose nukes. . . At U.S. ports and border crossings, agents are increasingly using X-ray surveillance of shipping containers and trucks to foil attempts to smuggle nuclear weapons or radioactive materials into the country. A new study indicates that radiation from the heavens may provide a way to detect such threatening cargoes without requiring potentially dangerous X-ray sources.

Week of 9 March 2003

Mature Before Their Time
- In the youthful universe, some galaxies were already old. . . A flurry of new reports suggests that a surprising number of galaxies grew up in a hurry, appearing old and massive even when the universe was still very young. If this portrait of precocious galaxies is confirmed by larger studies, astronomers may have to revise the accepted view of galaxy formation.
NASA Engineers Test Wright Stuff
- What would aviation pioneer Orville Wright think about a reproduction of his 1903 Wright Flyer being tested in a wind tunnel he used to visit? An authentic, airworthy reproduction of the Wright brothers' first successful powered flying machine is undergoing aerodynamic testing at the Langley Full Scale Tunnel (LFST).
The Oldest Light in the Universe
- A NASA satellite has captured the sharpest-ever picture of the afterglow of the big bang. . . One of the biggest surprises revealed in the data is the first generation of stars to shine in the universe first ignited only 200 million years after the big bang, much earlier than many scientists had expected.