] A vaccine using a harmless relative of the West Nile
] virus could offer a way to protect people against the
] disease, researchers in Australia said on Monday.

West Nile vaccine

] On August 27, Mars will be closer to Earth than at any
] point in the past 73,000 years.
]
] That's good news for amateur astronomers, but it won't
] make a manned mission to the Red Planet any easier. For
] that, NASA has earmarked an initial $2 million to build
] the Integrated Human Exploration Mission Simulation
] Facility, dubbed Integrity, at Houston's Johnson Space
] Center.
]
] Integrity is an all-inclusive, deep-space mission
] simulator that will house mock transit, habitation and
] landing modules, complete with waste-, air- and
] water-recycling technologies.

Mars on planet earth

" LIKE ICE CREAM FROM TRITON
[1] Besides the liquid nitrogen, no special ingredients were used in this experiment. [2] The non-cryogenic ingredients were combined in a mixing bowl. [3] The nitrogen was added a cup at a time. Note the use of heavy cryo gloves—this was not an occasion for oven mitts. [4] The concoction was stirred thoroughly and continuously to keep an unbreakable crust from forming. [5] The ice cream was ready to eat when smooth and free of lumps."

Any recipe with liquid nitrogen has to be good

Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream

] A Hawaii research company announced that it has developed
] a vaccine using genetically engineered viral proteins to
] protect human beings from contracting the West Nile
] virus.
]
] David Watumull, president and chief executive officer of
] Hawaii Biotech, said the vaccine produced by the company
] protected 100% of 60 test animals who were injected with
] West Nile virus. In contrast, 77% of the 30 control
] animals died and the others showed some signs of
] sickness, he said.
]
] Aiea-based Hawaii Biotech, a privately held
] biopharmaceutical company specializing in drug research
] and development, was founded in 1982 by nine University
] of Hawaii professors.
]
] The company plans to test the vaccine on humans within
] the next 15 months, Watumull said.

Hawaii firm develops West Nile vaccine

] Australia (CNN) -- Ever wanted to wish upon a star? Well,
] you have 70,000 million million million to choose from.
]
] That's the total number of stars in the known universe,
] according to a study by Australian astronomers.
]
] It's also about 10 times as many stars as grains of sand
] on all the world's beaches and deserts.
]
] The figure -- 7 followed by 22 zeros or, more accurately,
] 70 sextillion -- was calculated by a team of stargazers
] based at the Australian National University.
]
] Speaking at the General Assembly of the International
] Astronomical Union meeting in Sydney, Dr Simon Driver
] said the number was drawn up based on a survey of one
] strip of sky, rather than trying to count every
] individual star.
]
] The team used two of the world's most powerful
] telescopes, one at the Anglo-Australian Observatory in
] northern New South Wales state and one in the Canary
] Islands, to carry out their survey.
]
] Within the strip of sky some 10,000 galaxies were
] pinpointed and detailed measurements of their brightness
] taken to calculate how many stars they contained.

Mind you - this is only the universe visible to earth! Who knows what that figure might really be?

QUICK! Someone register "sextillion.com" before the pr0n sites or squatters catch on. DOH! Too late!!

LB

Astronomers pick a sky high number

] During 50 years of communist rule in former Yugoslavia,
] the Croatian island of Vis remained an inaccessible naval
] base lost in the middle of the Adriatic.
]
] The islanders eked a living from fishing and services for
] the Yugoslav military. Tourism, which in today's Croatia
] generates some $4.0 billion in revenues a year, came much
] later to the island than it did elsewhere on the Adriatic
] coast.
]
] There are no big socialist-style hotels here, some 12
] years after Croatia left Socialist Yugoslavia and fought
] an independence war with its ethnic Serb minority and the
] Yugoslav army.
]
] The place looks more like an early 20th century
] fishermen's settlement and, with some luck, it may stay
] that way.
]
] The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has designated Vis as one
] of the 10 last paradises on the Mediterranean and is
] taking steps to preserve its pristine beauty and
] wildlife, while giving locals a chance to make some money
] in the process.

Lost Mediterranean island deemed wild paradise

] Their weird glowing green color makes them look like
] they've been swimming in a nuclear plant's spent fuel
] pond.
]
] But the zebra fish on sale in Taipei shops have an even
] stranger background: They're the latest in genetically
] modified fish, and their bodies contain DNA from
] jellyfish, which makes them shimmer in the dark.
]
] Shopkeepers call them "Night Pearls." Some have nicknamed
] them "Frankenfish." Their makers at the Taipei-based
] Taikong Corp. use the less catchy name of "TK-1" and say
] they are the world's first genetically engineered
] fluorescent fish.
]
] They have been on the market in Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong
] and Malaysia for about three months, said Bill Kuo, a
] spokesman for Taikong, which owns a chain of pet stores.
]
] Now the fish are getting ready to cross the Pacific and
] swim into the U.S. market this month.

MUST... HAVE... FRANKENFISH!!!!!!

CNN.com - Glowing 'Frankenfish' swamp Taipei - Jul. 8, 2003

] LONDON - In an astonishing announcement on global warming
] and extreme weather, the World Meteorological
] Organisation has signalled that the world's weather is
] going haywire.
]
] In a startling report, the WMO, which normally produces
] detailed scientific reports and staid statistics at the
] year's end, highlighted record extremes in weather and
] climate occurring all over the world in recent weeks,
] from Switzerland's hottest-ever June to a record month
] for tornadoes in the United States - and linked them to
] climate change.
]
] The unprecedented warning takes its force and
] significance from the fact that it is coming from an
] impeccably respected UN organisation that is not given to
] hyperbole (though environmentalists will seize on it to
] claim that the direst warnings of climate change are
] being borne out).

Nope, no global warming, nothing to see here...

New Zealand News - World - Extreme weather evidence of global warming

] More than a generation before Sally Ride became the first
] U.S. woman in space, some experienced female pilots
] dubbed the Mercury 13 almost beat her to the milestone.
]
] Trained in secret in a laboratory run by a NASA medical
] officer, the group's remarkable experiences are
] chronicled in a new book by Martha Ackmann, "Mercury 13:
] The Untold Story of Thirteen Women and the Dream of
] Spaceflight."
]
] In 1961, the same year the first U.S. man achieved
] spaceflight, the women underwent the same series of tests
] as the Mercury 7 astronauts, according to Ackmann.
]
] But the Mercury 13 program did not win enough political
] support to continue to completion, she said, and the
] Soviet Union sent the first woman into space in 1963.
]
] Ackmann, an author, journalist and Mount Holyoke College
] professor, recently spoke with CNN during the same week
] as the anniversary of Ride's historic flight on June 18,
] 1983.

CNN.com - Women secretly trained as U.S. astronauts in 1960s - Jun. 23, 2003

] A new wide-angle view of the universe looks back to a
] mere billion years after the Big Bang, revealing secrets
] about the lives of galaxies and the black holes at their
] hearts, scientists reported on Thursday.
]
] The new view is contained in one extraordinary image,
] compiled by astronomers using a super-high-resolution
] camera aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, along with a
] catalog of objects giving off strong X-rays from space,
] detected by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, another
] NASA-affiliated instrument.
]
] The image shows a section of sky about one-tenth the size
] of the full Moon viewed from Earth. Though this may seem
] narrow, it is about 30 times wider than the last deep
] look into the universe, the Hubble Deep Field observation
] released in 1996.

(trying REAL hard not to sound like Carl Segan here)

Amazing. Each of those tiny specs of light in the back ground? They aren't stars. They are other GALAXIES - if the same size as our own Milky Way, about 90,000 light years from end to end in a mass of 200 BILLION stars.

And we're so arrogant to think we are the only speck of dust in the universe with life???

Laughing Boy

Hubble snaps stunning baby pic of cosmos