Robert Boyd

Money woes likely to hobble NASA's planned moon mission

NASA, with its history of landing men on the moon and producing Mars rovers that last far longer than they were designed to, helped cement America's reputation as the world's technological leader. But a series of money woes threaten its hopes of remaining the globe's leader in space exploration. There's not enough money for a new moon landing and science missions are running way over budget. | 09/03/09 16:35:00 By - Robert S. Boyd

Germ phobes can't win: We're all host to trillions of microbes

Scientists are beginning a large-scale effort to identify and analyze the vast majority of cells in or on your body that aren't of human origin. Only about 10 percent of the trillions of cells that make up a person are truly human, researchers say. The other 90 percent are bacteria, viruses and other microbes. | 08/27/09 14:53:00 By - Robert S. Boyd

Drop in world temperatures fuels global warming debate

Has Earth's fever broken? Official government measurements show that the world's temperature has cooled a bit since reaching its most recent peak in 1998. That's given global warming skeptics new ammunition to attack the prevailing theory of climate change. | 08/19/09 16:03:00 By - Robert S. Boyd

Science called key to economic, energy, health care challenges

Science and technology are key to solving the interconnected challenges of the economy, energy, climate change and health care, President Barack Obama's science advisers said this week. | 08/07/09 16:48:00 By - Robert S. Boyd

Gravity wells could provide 'parking lots' for spaceships

Some NASA folks call them "parking lots" in space. They're unusual locations where gravity loses its pull and a spaceship can loiter, rather like a marble at the bottom of a cup, without using a lot of fuel. Three of them are 930,000 miles outside Earth's orbit. One is between the Earth and the sun, and another is hidden on the far side of the sun. | 07/14/09 15:45:00 By - Robert S. Boyd

New wonder material, one-atom thick, has scientists abuzz

Imagine a carbon sheet that's only one atom thick but is stronger than diamond and conducts electricity 100 times faster than the silicon in computer chips. | 07/08/09 14:47:00 By - Robert S. Boyd

DNA's repair system studied in hopes of better cancer treatments

For a human cell, this is a scary world. Each of the 60 trillion or so cells in the average person's body is damaged tens of thousands, perhaps a million, times a day, scientists say. The results can be deadly. | 07/01/09 15:48:00 By - Robert S. Boyd

When shuttle retires, who will deliver in space?

NASA is turning to private space companies to plug a worrisome five-year gap in its ability to boost astronauts into orbit and return them safely to Earth. | 06/26/09 15:26:00 By - Robert S. Boyd

Not space junk yet: Mars rovers carry on despite age, ailments

In one of the most remarkable engineering feats of our time, the aging Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity are still taking orders and sending home pictures more than five years after they were supposed to turn into slabs of space junk. | 06/23/09 14:56:00 By - Robert S. Boyd

New era of gene-based 'personalized medicine' dawning

Since scientists announced six years ago the completion of the Human Genome Project, a historic effort to decipher each of the 3 billion letters in the genetic instruction book for our species, thousands of people have submitted DNA to a wide array of follow-on studies. That's opened a new era of "personalized medicine'' that seeks to tailor therapies to patients based on their unique genetic makeups and medical histories. | 06/10/09 15:44:00 By - Robert S. Boyd

Patenting human genes thwarts research, scientists say

Rapid advances in biology and genetics are raising fresh concerns about the spreading practice of patenting human genes. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted patents to at least 4,382 human genes, including genes related to Alzheimer's, asthma, cancer, muscular dystrophy and other serious diseases. | 06/03/09 14:39:00 By - Robert S. Boyd

Finally, space station gets to fulfill its science mission

On Wednesday, three astronauts — a Russian, a Canadian and a Belgian — are to ride a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from Kazakhstan up to the nearly completed space station, the first long-term human habitat in space. They're due to arrive Friday morning. When they join the three others already on board, it'll be the first time the space station has had a full crew complement. | 05/26/09 15:40:00 By - Robert S. Boyd