WASHINGTON -- NASA and Alliant Techsystems Inc., or ATK, have rescheduled the test of the new first-stage solid rocket motor for the Ares I rocket. The static firing of the five-segment solid motor, designated development motor -1, is scheduled for…

-- MIT study illuminates thoughts and memories CAMBRIDGE, Mass. Researchers at MITs Picower Institute for Learning and Memory have found that rats use a mental instant replay of their actions to help them decide what to do next, shedding new…

--could be used in underwater exploration CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Borrowing from Mother Nature, a team of MIT researchers has built a school of swimming robo-fish that slip through the water just as gracefully as the real thing, if not quite…

The planets ocean surface temperature was the warmest on record for July, breaking the previous high mark established in 1998 according to an analysis by NOAAs National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. The combined average global land and ocean…

WASHINGTON -- Arctic sea ice thinned dramatically between the winters of 2004 and 2008, with thin seasonal ice replacing thick older ice as the dominant type for the first time on record. The new results, based on data from a…

Cassini imaging scientists used views like this one to help them identify the source locations for individual jets spurting ice particles, water vapor and trace organic compounds from the surface of Saturns moon Enceladus. photo courtesy: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute PASADENA,…

By Marcia Wood In a wood near you, powerful microbes quicken the decay of fallen tree branches. These adroit decomposers perform that essential role by producing specialized enzymes. In the United States and abroad, biofuels researchers prize these enzymes because…

Knud-niks, Neewalkers, O-dats, Keepers and holographic rooms. Aliens with two heads, security drones and food that comes in pills. These are some of the characters and objects that young readers will find in The Softwire series of novels by PJ…

Size of Kuiper Belt Objects: This illustration of the largest known Kuiper Belt Objects shows Xena slightly larger than Pluto. Photo courtesy: NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI) For the first time, NASAs Hubble Space Telescope has seen distinctly the…

The U.S. Gulf of Mexico contains very thick and concentrated gas-hydrate-bearing reservoir rocks which have the potential to produce gas using current technology. Recent drilling by a government and industry consortium confirm that the Gulf of Mexico is the first…

EDWARDS, Calif. -- Space shuttle Atlantis and its crew landed at 8:39 a.m. PDT Sunday, May 24 at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., completing the final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. Atlantis astronauts conducted five successful spacewalks during…

Work could help heal sports injuries, arthritis CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--MIT engineers and colleagues have built a new tissue scaffold that can stimulate bone and cartilage growth when transplanted into the knees and other joints. The scaffold could offer a potential new…