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Phoenix scientists soon will analyze Martian ice  July 4, 2008

Scientists with the US Phoenix lander will make their first analysis of Martian ice fragments in coming days but it could be the last done in one of the probe's small ovens, NASA said on its website Friday.

Along with beauty, fireworks create a beastly mix of pollutants  July 4, 2008

When the rockets and the bombs burst in the air tonight, spectators will experience more than a spectacular show celebrating America's birthday.

MESSENGER Settles Old Debates And Makes New Discoveries At Mercury  July 4, 2008

Now, analyses of data from the January 2008 flyby of the planet by the Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging spacecraft have shown that volcanoes were involved in plains formation and ...

Radicals Shake Up Molecules In A Tug O' War 
Until now, it was commonly thought that colliding molecules get the shakes as the result of energy transfer solely from the smashing of the molecules, but some new research adds a second means by which colliding molecules become vibrationally excited--it is being called the "Tug o' War Mechanism." The new experiment, transforming the textbook story, was performed in the lab of Richard Zare, chair of the Department of Chemistry at Stanford University.

Cutting Calories Could Lead To The Fountain Of Youth 
Want to slow the signs of aging and live longer? New Saint Louis University research suggests cutting back on calories could be a promising strategy. Calorie restriction has long been shown to slow the aging process in rats and mice. While scientists do not know how calorie restriction affects the aging process in rodents, one popular hypothesis is that it slows aging by decreasing a thyroid hormone, triiodothyronine (T3), which then slows metabolism and tissue aging.

Computer-Like Mechanism Identified That Drives Neuron Expression For Taste And Smell 
Thanks to salt and hot chili peppers, researchers have found a calculus-computing center that tells a roundworm to go forward toward dinner or turn to broaden the search. It's a computational mechanism, they say, that is similar to what drives hungry college students to a pizza.

Properties Depend On Cluster Size 
Numbers of edge atoms dictate physical and chemical properties of nanoparticles.

Peptide Nanostructure Kills Cancer Cells 
By adding crown ether moieties to a polypeptide, chemists in Canada have created a nanoscale chemotherapeutic compound that can selectively and efficiently kill prostate cancer cells (Chem. Commun., DOI: 10.1039/b800528a).

Product Stewardship 
Nanotube Producers Take Concerns Seriously.