University of Arizona researchers snapped images of a planet outside our solar system with an Earth-based telescope using essentially the same type of imaging sensor found in digital cameras instead of an infrared detector. Although the technology still has a very long way to go, the accomplishment takes astronomers a small step closer to what will be needed to image earth-like planets around other stars

NASA has successfully concluded a remotely controlled test of new technologies that would empower future space robots to transfer hazardous oxidizer – a type of propellant – into the tanks of satellites in space today.

Concurrently on the ground, NASA is incorporating results from this test and the Robotic Refueling Mission on the International Space Station to prepare for an upcoming ground-based test of a full-sized robotic servicer system that will perform tasks on a mock satellite client.

Collectively, these efforts are part of an ongoing and aggressive technology development campaign to equip robots and humans with the tools and capabilities needed for spacecraft maintenance and repair, the assembly of large space telescopes, and extended human exploration.

Evolutionary biologists have long considered bird song to be an exclusively male trait, resulting from sexual selection. A new paper says that's not the whole story.

The results of their analysis, now published in Nature Communications, showed that the common ancestor of modern songbirds had female song.

It doesn't turn Darwin's theory of sexual selection on its head, but it does mean there is more to the story than what Darwin proposed. Sexual selection has played a major role in the evolution of elaborate bird song but other selection pressures or processes have also probably played a role, especially at the initial stages of its evolution, the authors note.

Frequent Facebook users also share a greater risk of eating disorders, according to a new psychology paper.

The small sample used 960 college students (naturally) and determined that more time on Facebook was associated with higher levels of disordered eating. Females who placed greater importance on receiving comments and "likes" on their status updates and were more likely to un-tag photos of themselves and compare their own photos to friends' posted photos reported the highest levels of disordered eating.

To begin, an example of failed humor.  Two friends in their 20s (called ‘L’ who is female, and ‘R’ who is male) are conversing :

L: “What did the big cup say to the little cup?”
R: (sarcastically) “I’m bigger than you?”
L: “No, Nothing. Cups can’t talk”.

R: (completely ignoring L) “I can hold more water than you?”

While Barbie was once as stereotypical as G.I. Joe, in modern years she can 'be anything.' Ken is still kind of annoying, however.

Yet to some it is not enough. Barbie must go. You won't be surprised to find that an article in Sex Roles, which touts itself as "an interdisciplinary behavioral science journal offering a feminist perspective", finds that Barbie is still holding girls back. You can save yourself all the heteronormative jargon about objectification theory and just read this overview.

Analysis of the wood from three 17th century shipwrecks in the Baltic Sea, the Ghost wreck, the Crown and the Sword, showed high concentrations of sulfur and iron using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) scanning.

Scientists from the same team have previously reported large amounts of sulfur and iron accumulation in the warship Vasa. In that study, the scientists found an outbreak of acidity and sulphate salts on the surface of the hull and other wooden objects.

There is a naive belief among some advocates that if people just had more money, their problems would be solved. Yet the saying 'money does not solve everything' exists as a truism for good reason.

Less worry about basic needs is obviously good for society - in developing nations, farmers that were able to use science and technology to be competitive with Europe and America showed dramatic improvements for their own families and their communities - and once basic needs are met there is more time to focus on education and culture. In America, this was accomplished in the last century by providing cheap electricity for all.

In a new Hubble telescope image, spiral galaxy ESO 137-001 is zooming toward the upper right, in between other galaxies in the Norma cluster located over 200 million light-years away.

The road is perilous: intergalactic gas in the Norma cluster is sparse, but so hot at 180 million degrees Fahrenheit that it glows in X-rays.

The spiral plows through the seething intra-cluster gas so rapidly, at nearly 4.5 million miles per hour, that much of its own gas is caught and torn away. Astronomers call this "ram pressure stripping." The galaxy's stars remain intact due to the binding force of their gravity.

A comparison of two hospitals and pertussis, one of which followed standard procedures and another that implemented a physician opt-in order initially and then a standing order for new mothers to receive the tetanus toxoid, reduced diphtheria toxoid and acellular pertussis vaccine (Tdap) before discharge, found that there was a 69% increase in the new mothers' pertussis vaccination rate, providing protection for themselves and their newborns against the disease, commonly known as whooping cough.