Snapshot of Earth’s chemical fingerprint may help search for life in the universe

September 7th, 2009 LONDON - In a new research, it has been determined that rocky worlds have to be about the size of Earth to be conducive for life. According to a report in New Scientist, the discovery of extrasolar super-Earths - rocky planets about five to ten times the mass of Earth - has raised hopes that some may harbour life.

August 20th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new research, a team of scientists has achieved a significant advance in the understanding of the early evolution of the universe, by putting new constraints on the details of how the universe looked in its earliest moments. The research was conducted by a team of scientists associated with the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration.

August 12th, 2009 Army Corps finds World War I chemical, halts digWASHINGTON — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is halting its search for World War I-era chemical weapons in a Washington, D.C., neighborhood after workers found an open glass flask containing traces of the chemical agent mustard.

July 23rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Fingerprints as a marker of your unique identity could soon be obsolete, for scientists have now found that people have another defining trait that may distinguish them from the rest of the human population-a metabolic fingerprint. In the study, the researchers have reported evidence of the existence of unique patterns in metabolism in humans.

July 13th, 2009 LONDON - a scientist has fabricated a new technique to 'see' fingerprints erased from fired bullets. Alex Goddard of University of Leicester has developed a technique that involves studying the chemical and physical interactions occurring between the metal and the fingerprint sweat deposit -- which have been overlooked until now.

July 13th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of scientists has developed 'Bullet fingerprinting' technology, which is a simple but effective method to visualize fingerprints even after the print itself has been removed. The technology has been developed by Dr John Bond, from Northamptonshire Police Scientific Support Unit and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Leicester's Forensic Research Centre, in collaboration with University scientists.

June 21st, 2009 SYDNEY - Scientists in Australia are getting closer to identify the mystery light that lit up the universe. The universe was covered in a thick fog of neutral hydrogen gas thirteen billion years ago.

June 20th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of scientists has found that the highest microbial life on Earth appears to be in South America, around vents near the rim of the Socompa volcano, which sits on the border between Argentina and Chile in the Atacama Desert. The newfound creatures, at a height of almost 19,850 feet (6,050 meters) above sea level, are the highest-altitude microbial communities known, Steve Schmidt, a microbiologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder, US, told National Geographic News.

June 13th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new research, a Maths Professor is looking to mathematical theories for clues on origins and future of life in the Universe. Louis Crane, K-State professor of mathematics, is studying new theories about why the universe is the way it is.

June 11th, 2009 Washington, June 11 (ANI: Astronomers, using the William Herschel Telescope (WHT) on La Palma have confirmed an effective way to search the atmospheres of planets for signs of life, vastly improving our chances of finding alien life outside our solar system. The team from the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) used the WHT and the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) to gather information about the chemical composition of the Earth's atmosphere from sunlight that has passed through it.

May 19th, 2009 LONDON - In a move that is reminiscent of scientists rejecting the view held by many people in the medieval times that the Earth is flat, a team of researchers has dismissed the notion that the Universe is completely flat. According to a report in New Scientist, when it comes to the universe, "flatness" refers to the fate of light beams traveling large distances parallel to each other.

May 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Astronauts John Grunsfeld and Andrew Feustel installed new equipment Saturday on the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope to help scientists study the origins of the universe. US space agency NASA said that the third of the current shuttle mission's five scheduled spacewalks was completed in six and a half hours.

May 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The space shuttle Atlantis blasted off from the Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida Monday on a mission to repair the ageing Hubble Space Telescope. The fifth and last mission to repair Hubble launched at 2:01 p.m.

March 7th, 2009 WASHINGTON - NASA late Friday sent the Kepler satellite into Earth's orbit with instructions to search for extraterrestrial life on Earth-type planets orbiting other stars. The launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida on board a Delta-II-rocket was reported on a live blog operated by the Kepler project on the internet.

March 6th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Are we alone in the universe? Are there other planets like Earth? Scientists will attempt to answer those questions with a telescope being launched into orbit Friday. The Kepler spacecraft is to launch at 10:49 p.m.