Science | WPN World People News

Boeing has successfully completed the final milestone of its Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) Space Act Agreement with NASA. The work and testing completed under the agreement resulted in significant maturation of Boeing’s crew transportation system, including the CST-100 spacecraft and Atlas V rocket.

Plastic in the oceans (plastic soup) has been thought to seriously affect aquatic life for some time, but until now little research has been carried out into the levels and effects of plastics in the freshwater environment. ‘The main sources of plastic are on land, so it is important to also look at the effects of plastic on land', says Professor Bart Koelmans, leader of the Wageningen University and IMARES research group. ‘We know that nanoplastic particles are released during processes such as the thermal cutting of plastics and 3D printing and when small plastic particles are abrasion by sand - a process that probably also takes place in nature.'

A new study focused on the interior of Saturn's icy moon Mimas suggests its cratered surface hides one of two intriguing possibilities: Either the moon's frozen core is shaped something like a football, or the satellite contains a liquid water ocean.

This is an artist's impression of a comparison between a magnetic mirror with cube-shaped resonators (left) and a standard metallic mirror (right). The incoming and outgoing electric field of light (shown as alternating red and white bands) illustrates that the magnetic mirror retains light's original electrical signature while a standard metallic mirror reverses it upon reflection.

This is an artist’s impression of a Kuiper Belt object (KBO), located on the outer rim of our solar system at a staggering distance of 4 billion miles from the Sun. A HST survey uncovered three KBOs that are potentially reachable by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft after it passes by Pluto in mid-2015

Astronomers have used the APEX telescope to probe a huge galaxy cluster that is forming in the early Universe and revealed that much of the star formation taking place is not only hidden by dust, but also occurring in unexpected places. This is the first time that a full census of the star formation in such an object has been possible.

The nanomedicine (red) with the optimal size shows the highest tumor tissue (blue) retention integrated over time, which is the collective outcome of deep tumor tissue penetration, efficient cancer cell internalization as well as slow tumor clearance.

Averaged electron microscope images of two intermediate helicase structures. The top shows an ORC binding the two ring structures together, and the bottom shows the completed double-ring structure with the ORC detached.

This image illustrates how the nano-cocoon system works.

A schematic model of the unique morphology of the alloy. The Pd-islands (light-brown spheres) are embedded in an environment of tungsten (blue spheres). Oxygen are represented by red spheres, and hydrogen by white spheres.