By Mark Memmott

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of one of the world's most important and controversial books -- Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species.

As NPR's Joe Palca reported on Morning Edition, "Darwin's book fundamentally altered how scientists look at the natural world, and continues to frame biological research today":

But there's more Darwin-related news to pass along.

First, there's the incredible report that a rare, first-edition copy of Origin was recently found on a bathroom bookshelf in Oxford, England, and will soon be auctioned for an estimated $100,000 or so.

Then, as the BBC reports, there's the public appeal from the curator at Darwin's home for help in finding his lost Galapagos notebook. It is, curator Annie Kemkaran-Smith believes, "an invaluable record of some of the most famous few weeks in the history of science." It's believed to have been stolen from Darwin's home in the early 1980s.

By Mark Memmott

Yes, our tongue is firmly planted in our cheek:

The news that researchers in Switzerland have begun hurling protons around the Large Hadron Collider again reminds us that scientists Holger Nielsen and Masao Ninomiya have hypothesized that perhaps the reason the massive machine keeps breaking is because a "malign influence from the future" doesn't want it to work because smashing atoms may not be good for the planet.

What we really wonder, though, is whether these folks from the future know who's going to win the Super Bowl? Not that we'd do anything profitable with the information, of course.

The website of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, which operates the collider, is here.

By Mark Memmott

There's a storm brewing on the Web over e-mails that hackers got hold of in which some scientists at one of the world's leading research centers say things such as the need to "hide the decline" in data about temperatures. Skeptics who have doubts about whether humans are contributing to global warming are pouncing on the revelations.

As The Wall Street Journal's Environmental Capital blog says, "this should get interesting."

The Guardian lays out much of the story here. It writes that:

Continue reading "Climate Skeptics Pounce On E-Mails Hackers Got From U.K. Scientists' Files" >

On its way. (Bruce Weaver/AFP/Getty Images)

By Mark Memmott

The space shuttle Atlantis just took off on what's planned to be an 11-day mission.

We reported earlier on the "NASAtweetup" that brought about 100 Twitter fans to the Kennedy Space Center.

Atlantis is taking spare parts to the International Space Station and will be bringing home station flight engineer Nicole Stott.

By Mark Memmott

They called off the Radio City Music Hall "debate" that they say was never supposed to be a debate, but now former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have scheduled a joint appearance next May at the 2010 BIO International Convention -- "the Global event for Biotechnology."

The Chicago Tribune says Bush and Clinton "will share a McCormick Place stage May 4, taking questions submitted by BIO President Jim Greenwood after opening remarks by the former Democratic and Republican presidents."

The next day at the conference, former vice president Al Gore (Bush's opponent in the 2000 presidential election), will deliver the convention's keynote address.

Today's Tweeters (most of them, at least, gathered for a class photo). (http://twitpic.com/prble)

By Mark Memmott

The latest word from Florida is that the skies are clouding up -- which might mean the postponement of today's scheduled 2:28 p.m. ET liftoff of the shuttle Atlantis.

But no matter what, the Tweeters are tweeting.

As most fans of Twitter and NASA probably already know, about "110 lucky followers of NASA's Twitter feed" are at the Kennedy Space Center to chronicle the launch 140 characters (or fewer) at a time.

You can see what they're saying by going to Twitter and searching for #nasatweetup. Or, just click here.

So, what are folks saying? Here's a sampling:

lexigeek: The astronauts are now in the astrovan, a modified airstream caravan, with a helicopter escort. En route to our location.

FlyingPhotog: Astronauts just drove past us to the launchpad, stopped and waved from the famous AirStream van! http://bit.ly/F7KmY #nasatweetup

AeroLeaders2: Astronaut van just stopped bout 50 yards from us. Saw them inside, but couldn't get pic b/c cruddy iPhone camera (sorry). #nasatweetup

We'll pass on more tweets later.

As for the launch itself, NASA TV is webcasting here.

Update at 2:33 p.m. ET. This nicely sums up what many tweeters are saying:

bn9nasa: That was incredible. The roar of the liftoff engulfed my entire being. AMAZING. #nasatweetup

Update at 2:28 p.m. ET: The shuttle just blasted off.

Update at 2:17 p.m. ET. Everything looks good for a launch in about 10 minutes:

tim846: the remaining few people in the #NASATweetup tent are heading outside to watch the launch of STS-129!

Update at 1:38 p.m. ET: The tweeters have been visited by some dignitaries at their Space Center tent. Astronaut Scott Kelly is among them. Here's a tweet one of his comments:

terrymyers: The shuttle smells like anaseptic and garbage after a few days says Scott Kelly. :) #nasatweetup

Update at 1:15 p.m. ET: Many of the tweeters are extolling the virtues of SpaceFlightNow.com and its webcast of the news.

By Mark Memmott

Good morning.

As we reported just a short time ago, there's word this morning that General Motors plans to repay the $6.7 billion in government loans it's gotten by 2011 -- four years early.

Among the other stories making headlines:

-- Morning Edition -- "Obama Pushes China Not To Censor Information". NPR's Scott Horsley reports from Beijing:

The president held a town hall meeting with future Chinese leaders in Shanghai. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

-- The Washington Post -- "Cleric Says He Was Confidant To Hasan": " In his first interview with a journalist since the Fort Hood rampage, Yemeni American cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi said that he neither ordered nor pressured Maj. Nidal M. Hasan to harm Americans, but that he considered himself a confidant of the Army psychiatrist who was given a glimpse via e-mail into Nadal's growing discomfort with the U.S. military."

-- The Associated Press -- Afghan Officials Announce Anti-Corruption Effort: "Afghan officials launched a new anti-corruption unit and major crime fighting force Monday amid stiff international pressure to clean up the government following a fraud-tainted presidential election. ... Law enforcement agencies from Britain and the United States, along with Interpol, helped set up the unit, Interior Minister Hanif Atmar said. The British and U.S. ambassadors to Afghanistan attended the launch in a show of support."

Related story from the Associated Press -- "Clinton: U.S. Wants More Accountability From Kabul": "The United States is limiting its goals in Afghanistan and demanding better accountability from that country's underperforming leader, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sunday, and she tied additional U.S. civilian help to results from Kabul."

Related story on Morning Edition -- "Afghans Grow Frustrated Waiting For Obama's Plan. NPR's Philip Reeves reports from Kabul:

-- Chicago Tribune -- Officials Will Tour Prison That Might House 'Gitmo' Detainees: "A delegation from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons is scheduled to tour and inspect the Thomson Correctional Center Monday as part of a White House proposal to buy the facility and use it to house some terror suspects now detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, officials said Sunday morning. Speaking Sunday at news conferences in Moline and Chicago, Gov. Pat Quinn called the Obama Administration's interest in the prison near the Mississippi River a 'great, great opportunity for our state.' "

-- The New York Times -- "Drug Makers Raise Prices In Face Of Health Care Reform": "Even as drug makers promise to support Washington's health care overhaul by shaving $8 billion a year off the nation's drug costs after the legislation takes effect, the industry has been raising its prices at the fastest rate in years. ... Drug makers say they have valid business reasons for the price increases. Critics say the industry is trying to establish a higher price base before Congress passes legislation that tries to curb drug spending in coming years."

-- The Associated Press -- "U.N. Summit Approves New Approach To Hunger Fight": In Rome, "world leaders at a food summit on Monday rallied around a new strategy to fight global hunger and help poor countries feed themselves, but failed to pledge funds sought by the U.N. ... The summit did not commit to a specific figure of $44 billion a year for agricultural aid that the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says will be necessary in the coming decades."

-- Florida Today -- Shuttle Atlantis On Schedule For Afternoon Launch: "Shuttle Atlantis is being fueled for flight at Kennedy Space Center this morning as NASA gears up for a planned launch this afternoon of Atlantis and six astronauts on an International Space Station outfitting mission. The 18-story spaceship and its crew are slated to blast off from Launch Complex 39A at 2:28 p.m. ET, the middle of a 10-minute opportunity to put the shuttle on course for a ground-up rendezvous and docking at the station just before noon Wednesday."

Contributing: Chinita Anderson of Morning Edition.

By Mark Memmott

"Preliminary data from NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, indicates the mission successfully uncovered water in a permanently shadowed lunar crater," NASA announced just a short time ago.

According to the space agency, "the discovery opens a new chapter in our understanding of the moon."

As NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce reported back on Oct. 9, when NASA sent a 2.2-ton piece of space junk into the crater to then analyze what it kicked up:

This is of interest to NASA in part because future moon explorers might be able to make use of this resource.

By Frank James

Some people will no doubt be disappointed to learn that the two man-eating Lions of Tsavo in Kenya, long on display at the Field Museum in Chicago, didn't eat as many people as their reputations suggested, something like 35 compared with 135 people.

The lions of Tsavo which once dined on humans though not as many as once thought. ( The Field Museum)

But 35 is still a lot of people and it seems like the lions still have every right to be considered as man-eating as ever.

Of course, humans got the last laugh, as evidenced by the fact that the lions have been stuffed and staring out at visitors from a display case in Chicago for the last 80 years.

What's fascinating is how scientists came to the new estimate, by examining isotopes in the fur and bones of the animals.

The Chicago Tribune has the story. An excerpt:

For more than 80 years, the man-eating Tsavo lions have been one of the Field Museum's top tourist draws.

Now a study released Monday suggests the Tsavo lions' taste for human flesh may have been exaggerated.

According to the man who finally caught them in 1898, the two maneless Kenyan lions munched their way through as many as 135 people before they were shot, skinned, sold, stuffed and put on display in Chicago.

The story of how they preyed on a terrified camp of imperial British railroad workers for nine months captivated museum-goers for decades and inspired a 1996 movie with Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer, "The Ghost and the Darkness."

Continue reading "These Lions Ate Humans Though Not As Many As Once Thought" >

By Mark Memmott

Don't forget: For most of us in the U.S., it's almost time to change the clocks.

"Fall back" an hour at 2 a.m. Sunday (we'll "spring ahead" next ... Spring).

As All Things Considered reported last March, there's reason to doubt that changing the clocks each Spring and Fall accomplishes what some had hoped -- saving energy.

But lots of folks like having the extra hour of evening light in the summer.

Your opinion?

For a brief history of Daylight Saving Time, check out this story from National Geographic.

Oh, and a reminder: Those of you in Arizona and Hawaii don't have to do a thing. (One exception: The Navajo Nation in northeastern Arizona, does change its clocks.)

Amy Wallace.

(twitter.com/msamywallace)

By Mark Memmott

Writing in Wired magazine that "pseudo-science preys on well-intentioned people" and that parents who believe vaccines can cause autism are rejecting "hard-won knowledge," has brought journalist Amy Wallace more feedback -- some of it threatening -- than she's ever had in more than 25 years of reporting.

Wallace has tweeted about it all -- the threats, profanities and what she says are the larger number of messages thanking her.

This afternoon, she spoke with All Things Considered host Melissa Block.

Among the most vitriolic of Wallace's critics is J.B. Handley, co-founder of Generation Rescue, "Jenny McCarthy's autism research and treatment advocacy organization ... formed by parents to help parents searching for answers about preventing and treating childhood neurological disorders." Handley has written that Wallace simply regurgitated pediatrician Paul Offit's research (fair warning, Handley's language is raw).

Wallace says that while the critics have been passionate, the story has generated more positive than negative responses so far:

That's one reason why, Wallace says, she is gratified the story has started a conversation:

More of Melissa's conversation with Wallace is due on today's ATC. Click here to find an NPR station near you.

The NPR Health Blog follows all sorts of news on such subjects.

(Matt Stroshane/Getty Images)

By Mark Memmott

An experimental version of the rocket that NASA hopes will replace the space shuttle as the nation's way of getting astronauts into space just launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The Ares I-X, at 327 feet the tallest rocket in the world, is supposed to fly for two minutes.

We'll pass along more as the story develops.

Update at 11:55 a.m. ET. Here's what it sounded like as NASA's George Diller counted down and the rocket launched:

Update at 11:38 a.m. ET: As it's apparently supposed to, the rocket's "upper stage" has landed in the water, NASA says. "Now it's recovery time," NASA just said on its webcast.

"You all did frick'n fantastic," a voice on the NASA webcast just told others at the Space Center.

Update at 11:36 a.m. ET: "Not too much to report," they just said on NASA's webcast. The Ares I-X is thought to be floating down under its parachute, heading for a splashdown in the Atlantic.

Update at 11:32 a.m. ET: At least on TV, everything looked good.

NASA writes that:

At about the T+2 minute point in the flight, the upper stage simulator and first stage will separate at approximately 130,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean. The unpowered simulator will splash down in the ocean. The first stage will be fired for a controlled ocean landing with parachutes that will allow recovery by one of NASA's booster recovery ships, while the other ship tracks the upper stage.

By Mark Memmott

The first test of the rocket that could one day replace NASA's space shuttles has been postponed.

High winds and a nearby rain storm at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida just forced NASA to call off today's planned launch.

When it does fly, the Ares I-X, at 327 feet, will be the tallest rocket ever launched. There may be another attempt to launch tomorrow.

By Mark Memmott

Good morning.

As the day gets started, Reuters offers this news alert from Tehran. It captures the "maybe, maybe not" nature of that country's relations with the rest of the world:

Iran will accept the framework of a U.N.-drafted nuclear fuel deal, but will also demand changes to it, al Alam state television reported on Tuesday. Al Alam, citing an unnamed official, said Iran would present its response to the proposed agreement within 48 hours.

Also in the news this hour: NASA is hoping to launch its newest rocket -- the Ares I-X. But rain could delay the flight. NASA TV is webcasting here.

Meanwhile, the stories making headlines include:

-- The Associated Press -- Pakistan Claims Progress In Push Against Taliban: " Pakistan's army says 42 militants have been killed in the latest stage of its offensive against the Taliban close to the Afghan border. A statement Tuesday says that troops were making steady progress in the 11-day old campaign in South Waziristan."

-- Morning Edition -- "No. 3 Man Moving Up In Al-Qaida". NPR's Dina Temple-Raston reports on the new face of al-Qaida:

-- The Associated Press -- "Obama Putting $3.4 Billion Toward A 'Smart' Power Grid": "President Barack Obama, during a visit to a solar energy facility in Arcadia, Fla., is announcing Tuesday that he is making available $3.4 billion in government support for 100 projects aimed at modernizing the power grid. The projects include installing "smart" electric meters in homes, automating utility substations, and installing thousands of new digital transformers and grid sensors."

Related report from NPR's Scott Horsley:

-- The New York Times -- "Ex A.I.G. Chief Is Back, Luring Talent From Rescued Firm": "Maurice R. Greenberg, who built the American International Group into an insurance behemoth with an impenetrable maze of on- and offshore companies, is at it again. Even as he has been lambasting the government for its handling of A.I.G. after its near collapse, Mr. Greenberg has been quietly building up a family of insurance companies that could compete with A.I.G. To fill the ranks of his venture, C.V. Starr & Company, he has been hiring some people he once employed."

-- Morning Edition -- Clinics Struggle To Keep Up With Swine Flu. Steve Inskeep talks to clinic staffers in Indiana, Ohio, Maryland and Florida:

Getting the shot in L.A. (David McNew/Getty Images)

By Mark Memmott

Saying that "a human landing followed by an extended human presence on Mars stands prominently above all other opportunities for exploration," an independent panel created by the White House has suggested that NASA adjust its goals to focus on the Red Planet.

The panel's report is posted here. Chaired by Norman Augustine, the retired CEO of Lockheed Martin, the panel says that a trip to one of Mars' moons or to an asteroid is advisable because:

Continue reading "Head Toward Mars; Panel Tells NASA" >

By Mark Memmott

Though 57% of those polled said they believe global temperatures are on the rise, that's down from 71% who felt that way in April 2008, the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press reports today.

And, Pew says, "fewer also see global warming as a very serious problem -- 35% say that today, down from 44% in April 2008."

The researchers' overall conclusion: "There has been a sharp decline over the past year in the percentage of Americans who say there is solid evidence that global temperatures are rising."

Why has that happened?

Pew's research director, Andrew Kohut, tells the Associated Press that:

"The priority that people give to pollution and environmental concerns and a whole host of other issues is down because of the economy and because of the focus on other things. ... When the focus is on other things, people forget and see these issues as less grave."

The national telephone survey of 1,500 adults was done from Sept. 30 to Oct. 4. Pew says the margin of error on each result is +/- 3 percentage points.

In a galaxy far, far away ... (Artist's impression/European Southern Observatory)

By Mark Memmott

The discovery of 32 more planets outside our solar system means there are more places out there somewhere that just might support life.

News about the "exoplanets" was announced today at a conference in Portugal. The European Southern Observatory has also posted an online video news release -- complete with some jazzy sci-fi graphics.

The discovery means there are now about 400 known planets outside our solar system.

Wired says that several of the 32 newly discovered planets "qualify as 'super-Earths,' meaning they have a mass only a few times that of our planet and could potentially harbor Earth-like environments."

Nature.com says "the planets may not be the biggest, fattest, smallest or Earthiest, but they show that the chances of us finding Earth-like planets are pretty high."

Update at 7 p.m. ET: In other celestial news, our friends at The Picture Show blog celebrate the 400th anniversary of the telescope with some far out photos.

Is nature against it? (Fabrice Coffrini AFP/Getty Images)

By Mark Memmott

Ask yourself this:

Is the The New York Times essay this week about two physicists' theory that a "malign influence from the future" wants the Large Hadron Collider to fail just a wacky story? Or, is it proof that the theory -- that nature is killing the collider before it kills us -- has merit?

After all, that suggestion from scientists Holger Nielsen and Masao Ninomiya wasn't anything new. Discover's Discoblog wrote about it in August 2008. And the physicists have been writing about this since at least July 2007.

So, maybe some force from the future keeps pushing this story to make it happen? Huh? Make sense, right? Wait a minute. Must adjust the tin foil.

It might have looked something like this. (Antonio ScorzaAFP/Getty Images)

By Mark Memmott

Perhaps it's just as well we weren't around to meet this creature:

"Researchers in China and the U.K. say they have discovered the fossils of a new type of flying reptile that lived more than 160 million years ago," the BBC reports.

According to the BBC, the discovery may fill in a gap in the evolutionary chain between "primitive, long-tailed pterosaurs and more advanced short-tailed ones."

Scientific American says that:

The new animal, described from more than 20 specimens found in northeast China earlier this year, was not an average of primitive and advanced features as expected, but rather had some well-defined characteristics of each, including a long tail like older species and a head and neck like more recent ones. This discovery lends credence to the idea of rapid, "modular" evolution, in which large morphological parts of species undergo relatively fast changes via natural selection, rather than developing more slowly, bone by bone.

The newly discovered Darwinopterus is said, the BBC writes, to have been "a hawk-like reptile with a head and neck just like advanced pterosaurs -- but the rest of the skeleton is similar to more primitive forms."

For those who want much more, Proceedings of The Royal Society B has the researchers' report posted here.

Update at 12:30 p.m. ET. NPR's Christopher Joyce files this report on the discovery:

By Mark Memmott

NASA is webcasting the 7:31 a.m. ET intentional crash of a satellite into the moon. The mission's goal: See if any water or ice show up in the crater.

Update at 7:32 a.m. ET: Kapow! The satellite has hit its target -- but we have to say, there wasn't much to see on the webcast. At least not yet.

By Mark Memmott

Asteroid Apophis -- all two-and-a-half football fields of it -- is headed toward Earth.

But, thankfully, NASA now says the odds of it striking the planet in the year 2036 are only about 1-in-250,000. That's an improvement from the 1-in-45,000 odds NASA was previously giving on a close-encounter-of-the-collision-kind with Apophis.

The new odds follow some recalculations of the asteroid's path.

So, how do they compare to some other ways of dying that we may want to worry about? Here's a short quiz that may be illuminating (all odds apply to deaths in the U.S. and come from the National Safety Council):

An artist's conception of a newly discovered and nearly invisible ring around Saturn -- the largest of the giant planet's many rings that scientists found using by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. ( NASA)

By Frank James

Scientists have discovered Saturn's largest ring to date, a ring of dust and ice difficult to see with visible light telescopes but detected using the Spitzer Space Telescope's infrared camera.

According to a NASA press release:

The new belt lies at the far reaches of the Saturnian system, with an orbit tilted 27 degrees from the main ring plane. The bulk of its material starts about six million kilometers (3.7 million miles) away from the planet and extends outward roughly another 12 million kilometers (7.4 million miles). One of Saturn's farthest moons, Phoebe, circles within the newfound ring, and is likely the source of its material.

An artist's rendition makes Saturn appear as a tiny dot with the band an ethereal ring relatively far from the planet.

Another excerpt from the press release:

"This is one supersized ring," said Anne Verbiscer, an astronomer at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. "If you could see the ring, it would span the width of two full moons' worth of sky, one on either side of Saturn." Verbiscer; Douglas Hamilton of the University of Maryland, College Park; and Michael Skrutskie, of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, are authors of a paper about the discovery to be published online tomorrow by the journal Nature.

"Two full moons' worth of sky." That's a monster ring, indeed.

Here's the abstract for the article in Nature in which the scientists fully report their discovery. To read the entire thing, you need to be a subscriber or purchase access to the article.

Continue reading "New Saturn Ring Discovered And It's Huge" >

By Mark Memmott

Americans Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas Steitz and Israeli Ada Yonath were awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in chemistry this morning for work that the prize committee says has been important to understanding "one of life's core processes: the ribosome's translation of DNA information into life."

According to the committee:

Based upon the information in DNA, ribosomes make proteins: oxygen-transporting haemoglobin, antibodies of the immune system, hormones such as insulin, the collagen of the skin, or enzymes that break down sugar. There are tens of thousands of proteins in the body and they all have different forms and functions. They build and control life at the chemical level.

An understanding of the ribosome's innermost workings is important for a scientific understanding of life. This knowledge can be put to a practical and immediate use; many of today's antibiotics cure various diseases by blocking the function of bacterial ribosomes. Without functional ribosomes, bacteria cannot survive. This is why ribosomes are such an important target for new antibiotics.

This year's three Laureates have all generated 3D models that show how different antibiotics bind to the ribosome. These models are now used by scientists in order to develop new antibiotics, directly assisting the saving of lives and decreasing humanity's suffering.

Much more about the scientists' work is posted here.

The winners will share a $1.4 million prize.

And here are links to their biographies:

-- Ramakrishnan.
-- Steitz.
-- Yonath.

Update at 7:25 a.m. ET. NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce says a ribosome is like "a little machine inside a living cell that takes information from the genetic code and uses it to piece together proteins":

By Mark Memmott

You know those fiber optic cables bringing you TV, phone and Internet service?

Three scientists just won this year's Nobel Prize in Physics for breakthroughs in fiber optics and digital data transmission.

Charles Kao, a British and U.S. citizen who was born in Shanghai in 1933, made a key discovery in 1966, the Nobel committee says:

(He) carefully calculated how to transmit light over long distances via optical glass fibers. With a fiber of purest glass it would be possible to transmit light signals over 100 kilometers, compared to only 20 meters for the fibers available in the 1960s. Kao's enthusiasm inspired other researchers to share his vision of the future potential of fiber optics. The first ultrapure fiber was successfully fabricated just four years later, in 1970.

The other two honorees are Willard Boyle, a Canadian and U.S. citizen, and American George Elwood Smith. According to the committee, in 1969 they:

Invented the first successful imaging technology using a digital sensor, a CCD (Charge-Coupled Device). The CCD technology makes use of the photoelectric effect, as theorized by Albert Einstein and for which he was awarded the 1921 year's Nobel Prize. By this effect, light is transformed into electric signals. The challenge when designing an image sensor was to gather and read out the signals in a large number of image points, pixels, in a short time.

The CCD is the digital camera's electronic eye. It revolutionized photography, as light could now be captured electronically instead of on film.

As NPR's Richard Harris says, these days "fiber optics are everywhere":

View Larger Map

By Frank James

Yet another significant earthquake has been reported, this one in South America, Peru to be specific, and registering a magnitude of 5.9.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake struck 60 miles east of Juliaca, Peru and 100 miles northwest of La Paz, Bolivia. There are no reports of injuries or damage.

Reuters reports:

A magnitude 5.9 quake struck southeastern Peru on Wednesday near Bolivia's capital of La Paz, but it was not felt by witnesses and mines in the area.

The U.S. Geological Survey initially reported a 6.3 magnitude quake but later downgraded it. The temblor was 100 miles (160 km) northwest of La Paz and fairly deep -- some 155.5 miles (250 km) below the surface.

The depth of this particular earthquake could help explain why it wasn't felt more on the surface. This earthquake follows much larger quakes on the Indonesian island of Sumatra early Wednesday and one off the coast of American Samoa in the South Pacific on Tuesday.

Three major quakes occurring in a 24-hour period is making many people ask if there's any connection between the events. We're trying to get a good scientific answer to that.

By Frank James

A magnitude 7.9 earthquake has occurred under the Pacific Ocean about 125 miles southwest of American Samoa.

The U.S. Geological Service says the earthquake occurred at a depth of about 21.7 miles into the earth's crust. The earthquake happened at 1:48 ET.

There haven't been any reports of a tsunami though that is a concern at this point.

We'll keep you posted.

UPDATE: 2:46 PM -- Just received a report that there is a tsunami sweeping across part of the South Pacific.

NPR's Richard Harris has this report for the network's newscast:

... An emergency worker in the capital city of Pago Pago told NPR that a wave 10 to 15 feet tall swept through the harbor there a few minutes later.

The emergency management office says there do not appear to be any casualties as a result of the wave, at least in the city of Pago Pago.

School children were sent to high ground as a precaution. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says instruments also detected a tsunami wave.

Scientists are now calculating how big it will be. The wave is likely to spread throughout the South Pacific and reach New Zealand. If it were to get as far as Hawaii, it would arrive in about four hours from now. It is not expected to reach the coast of North America.

Continue reading "Major 7.9 Earthquake In Pacific Ocean Near American Samoa Creates Tsunami" >

By Mark Memmott

Think you've got sharp ears?

Then listen to this clip from a piece coming up on today's All Things Considered. NPR's Margot Adler needs two tries to identify a certain cricket by its sound -- and she'd been studying for just such a test:

Margot's story is about the NYC Cricket Crawl, an effort conducted Saturday night to, as The New York Times puts it, do something of an insect census in the city. In particular, researchers were curious about whether the "classic katydid" can still be found in Gotham. As Margot reports, it can be.

Want to hear more cricket calls so that you can try identifying them yourself? Seven species' calls are online here.

And here's a NYC Cricket Crawl question-and-answer that may impress your kids:

What is the Difference Between Crickets, Katydids, and Cicadas?

OK, the simplest answer is that crickets and katydids largely call at night while Cicadas almost entirely call during the day time. Crickets are sweet sounding and musical while katydids and cicadas are buzzy, raspy, and often a bit harsh sounding. Biologically, crickets and katydids are closely related while cicadas come from an entirely different Order of insects.

Click here to find an NPR station near you that broadcasts ATC.

By Mark Memmott

It's hard to think of headlines and obituaries that could have more astounding lines than these:

-- "The Nobel winner who fed the world." The Guardian.

-- "Father of green revolution saved millions of lives." The Financial Times.

-- "Credited with saving 1 billion lives from famine." The Dallas Morning News.

Those lines are about scientist Norman Borlaug, who died Saturday night in Dallas. He was 95 and had been battling cancer. It was Borlaug's work in creating high-yield crop varieties and improving agriculture in the Third World that brought him accolades.

On Weekend Edition Sunday, independent radio producer Dan Charles filed this report:

A photo from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope of the Carina Nebula. From this angle it looks like a space alien pointing an ET finger. (AP Photo/NASA)

By Frank James

The Hubble telescope has clearly gotten its groove back, as stunning photos released by NASA on Wednesday demonstrate.

The 19-year old telescopic platform got new equipment and had repairs done during a May space shuttle mission.

Aside from launching rockets into space, NASA is very adept at politics, which it showed once again by having Sen. Barbara Mikulsi, a Maryland Democrat, unveil the new photos.

In any event, the new equipment makes it possible for Hubble to get even more eye-popping photos of the part of the Universe it can see.

An excerpt from a NASA article:

With its new imaging camera, Hubble can view galaxies, star clusters, and other objects across a wide swath of the electromagnetic spectrum, from ultraviolet to near-infrared light. A new spectrograph slices across billions of light-years to map the filamentary structure of the universe and trace the distribution of elements that are fundamental to life...

Continue reading "Hubble Telescope Gets Its Groove Back" >

Cue the scary music. (Massachusetts State Division of Marine Fisheries / AP)

By Mark Memmott

The wonder of it all can clearly be heard in the voice of marine biologist Greg Skomal as he tells All Things Considered guest host Noah Adams how amazing it is that scientists can now "tag" great white sharks with computer chips that will tell them where the beasts have been.

Skomal and his colleagues at the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries have successfully tagged two of the great whites spotted off Cape Cod in recent days.

The beaches in Chatham, Mass., remain closed because of the sightings.

Meanwhile, the Cape Cod Times has posted this fairly humorous video about the search for sharks:

Much more from Noah's conversation with Skomal is due on today's ATC. Click here to find an NPR station near you.

By David Gura

At 4:30 p.m. ET, NASA will hold a news conference in Florida, to announce a new launch time for STS-128, the Space Shuttle Discovery's mission to the International Space Station. (It has been postponed twice, because of inclement weather and a faulty fuel valve.)

NASA managers hope to start the launch countdown at 8:34 a.m. ET on Friday, for an 11:59 p.m. ET takeoff.

Discovery will take the Leonardo supply module to the International Space Station. Astronauts will attach it to the Harmony node.

NASA has planned only seven more shuttle missions, including this one.

By David Gura

NASA has postponed the start of STS-128, Discovery's latest mission to the International Space Station, because of a bad fuel valve:

A problem with a fill-and-drain valve inside space shuttle Discovery's aft compartment has scrubbed the Wednesday morning launch attempt for STS-128. The launch team is evaluating the issue and has not set a new launch date and time at this point.

This is the second mission delay. Discovery was scheduled to blast off from Cape Canaveral on Aug. 4, but adverse weather conditions made a launch too risky.

According to NASA, "Discovery will carry the Leonardo supply module to the International Space Station during STS-128, along with a new crew member for the station, Nicole Stott."

Commanded by veteran astronaut Rick "C.J." Sturckow, the STS-128 mission crew will deliver refrigerator-sized racks full of equipment, including the COLBERT treadmill, an exercise device named after comedian Stephen Colbert.

By David Gura

When I was an undergraduate, I often walked by the entrance to the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS), a portal to Cornell University's subterranean sub-atomic particle accelerator.

I had no idea what happened down there, beneath the varsity soccer field. Did they use it for good? For evil? For entertainment? (In a library on campus, there was a photograph of a grinning Hans Bethe, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist, pedaling a bike through one of the synchrotron's long tunnels.)

As a history major, I never found out.

Today, I learned that, among other things, a synchrotron can help art conservationists. Using the particle accelerator, scientists peeled away layers of paint on an N.C. Wyeth painting, "Family Portrait," to reveal a colorful first draft of another Wyeth work:

Their device focuses an X-ray beam onto a painting and collects the fluorescent X-rays given off by the chemicals in the various layers of paint. Each color of paint produces a unique fluorescence spectrum, like a chemical fingerprint, which can then be mapped to reconstruct the original color schemes in the hidden painting.

By David Gura

In The Observer yesterday, Paul Gallagher reported on "a revolutionary project to record three-dimensional models of world heritage sites so that they can be recreated if they fall victim to climate change, natural disaster, war or terrorism." First up: Mt. Rushmore.

CyArk, the American company with whom six British scientists are collaborating, "has identified several other 'at-risk' sites, including the Acropolis in Athens, threatened by acid rain, and Machu Picchu in Peru, which suffers from excessive tourism.

Pollution, over-expansion and deforestation may have already permanently damaged Tikal National Park in Guatemala, one of the largest archaeological remains of the pre-Columbian Maya civilisation. CyArk's ultimate aim is to create 3D models of 500 sites around the world. Work began this year on scanning the underworld of Rome, 170km of winding catacombs dating back two millennia, and the Zapotec capital of Monte Alban, in Mexico. Other sites proposed for digital mapping include Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the Khmer temple complex built for King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century, Thebes in Egypt and Pompeii, the Roman town buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

Somewhere, The Old Man of the Mountain sheds a single granite tear...

Short-lived Tropical Storm Chantal forms 210 miles south of Halifax, Nova Scotia on July 31, 2007. (NOAA)

By Frank James

Scientists have noticed an increase in short-lived hurricanes in the past century. But before anyone runs off and tries to use this information as just one more piece of evidence for global warming, that's not what scientists think explains the increase.

Instead, the answer is better explained, they believe, by our greatly improved ability to discern such storms that last two days or less.

According to a report by NPR's Jon Hamilton for the network's radio newscast:

The study found that nearly all of the apparent increase in storm activity involved tropical storms or hurricanes that lasted no more than two days.

Weather records show that since the late 19th century, the number of these short-lived storms has increase fivefold. The number of longer storms has remained almost unchanged.

Continue reading "Rise In Short-Lived Hurricanes Likely Due To Better Counting" >

By Frank James

When the human genome was initially sequenced nine years ago, it was a big deal, with a White House event attended not only by the commander-in-chief at the time, President Bill Clinton, but then British Prime Minister Tony Blair. It was a major accomplishment, a Big Science project akin to the Manhattan Project, taking about $2.7 billion to achieve.

This is how much that particular science has advanced since then. A single scientist has just announced that he sequenced his own genome in a week using one machine, a technology which, if its use becomes widespread, could do a similar sequencing for less than $50,000.

As the Associated Press reports:

A Stanford University professor reported Monday that he has sequenced his entire genome in a week for under $50,000 using a single machine...

... The breakneck pace of technological progress in the field of DNA sequencing has raised hopes that affordable gene scans will be available to all patients soon.

Continue reading "Scientist Sequences His Genome In A Week And On The Cheap" >

By Frank James

High-energy physicists, especially junior ones, were counting on the massive particle collider in Geneva, Switzerland known as the Large Hadron Collider to be producing so much data by now, they'd have plenty of work to do.

But, as we know, the best laid plans often go awry. And so did collider, which experienced a short circuit not long after it was started in September.

It took nearly a year to repair and on Thursday the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, said the device, the largest scientific tool ever built, will be restarted in November. Scientists hope that the high-energy particles created will lead to a better understanding of the universe, including the Big Bang and dark matter.

Geoffrey Brumfiel, an NPR reporter, has a piece on All Things Considered on how some scientists have had to scramble to stay busy and earn a paycheck while the LHC was repaired.

Continue reading "Physicists Bank On Restarted Particle Collider " >

By Mark Memmott

The space shuttle Endeavour has fired its braking rockets and is on its way to a 10:48 a.m. ET touchdown at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida after a 15 day mission in space.

Care to follow along? NASA is blogging the landing here. And, NASA-TV is online here.

Update at 10:50 a.m. ET: Endeavour has landed safely.

By Mark Memmott

A little left-wing (pun intended) bias showing?

In the middle of Robert Krulwich's report on Morning Edition about "The Crow Paradox," a bit of politics pops up.

When researchers from Cornell University and the University of Washington decided to test whether crows can tell people apart, one wore a caveman mask while putting bands on crows. Then, he had volunteers wear the same mask as they walked across Washington's campus. The crows' reaction to the volunteers? Lots of cawing and angry flapping -- a sign that they recognized the "face."

Then, the researchers had volunteers walk across campus in a Dick Cheney mask.

Students reacted, they report, but not the crows.

Hmm. Think they would have chosen an Obama mask?

Here' is Robert's report:

Not so scary to a crow. Peace activists poked fun at then Vice President Dick Cheney in Lincoln, Neb., in 2004. (Bill Wolf / AP © 2004)

Update at 10:45 a.m. ET. Here's a video explanation of the paradox from Robert:

The path of the eclipse will extend from India to across much of the Pacific Ocean. NASA.gov

 

By Mark Memmott

It's hard not to read a story that starts like this one from Agence France Presse:

Indian astrologers are predicting violence and turmoil across the world as a result of this week's total solar eclipse, which the superstitious and religious view as a sign of potential doom.

According to AFP, "In Hindu mythology, the two demons Rahu and Ketu are said to 'swallow' the sun during eclipses, snuffing out its life-giving light and causing food to become inedible and water undrinkable."

But a quick look around at Indian news media websites shows there's also considerable excitement about tomorrow's eclipse, which will be visible along a narrow band from India, across China and out into to the Pacific Ocean.

-- "Visitors Throng Aryabhata's Patna To View Eclipse," says The Times of India.

-- "Excitement Boils Over In Bihar's 'Eclipse Village,' " writes the Hindustan Times.

In Calcutta, The Telegraph covers both angles of the story in its first sentence:

The world may be coming to Taregna to watch Wednesday's total solar eclipse, but the villagers themselves will be keeping their eyes firmly shut -- in fear and worship.

According to the Associated Press, this will be "the longest total solar eclipse of this century" and will "reach its peak in India at about 6:20 a.m. local time (8:50 p.m. ET), and will last 6 minutes and 39 seconds at its maximum point."

By Laura Conaway

At a summit this month, the world's wealthiest nations agreed to a goal of letting the global temperature rise no more than two degrees above pre-industrial levels. The G8 set a goal of reducing global emissions in half percent by 2050.

In its communique, the G8 cited the work of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, but today the chair of that panel said the world leaders "clearly ignored what the IPCC came up with" to reach those goals.

AP reports that Rajendra Pachauri said today that the G8's timeline is about 30 years too long. Pachauri said the G8 "should have also accepted" the panel's finding that greenhouse gas emissions must peak in 2015 and then decline between 25 percent and 40 percent by 2020.

By crouching forward, jockeys allow their limbs to act as pistons and take stress off the horses. Equine Action Images

 

By Laura Conaway

Jockeys are changing the way they ride. A research team in the U.K. put motion sensors on riders and their mounts, and discovered that modern jockeys remain steadier through the natural jostling of a race. That helps the horses run faster. The team's findings appear in study published this week in the journal Science.

Alan Wilson, a professor of locomotor biomechanics at the Royal Veterinary College, tells NPR's Jon Hamilton on today's All Things Considered that jockeys are using their arms and legs like shock absorbers. The horses still have to carry the riders, Wilson explains, but they don't also have to move them up and down with each stride. He compares the motion to that of a skier moving down a mogul field:

"Their feet are going up and down, but their body is following a smooth path," he says.

It's hard work for the jockeys, whose hearts sometimes hit 180 beats per minute.

Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin on the moon; July 20, 1969. NASA/Getty Images

 

By Mark Memmott

We asked Two-Way readers for their memories of the Apollo 11 moon mission, and the stories have been coming in. Among our favorites so far:

Mary Davis (mernie4) wrote:

"We have Lift-Off!" I still get chills when I hear these words. I was 12 and was watching this on the one B&W TV we had with a number of my siblings. It was a hot July night, I was glued to the TV. Thanks Mom and Dad for allowing us to stay up! We were fortunate as kids to have teachers that brought in the TV to the classroom for us to watch the "splashdowns". I was at a girlfriend's house watching an Elvis movie when the news flash came on about the tragic death of Grissom et al. The whole space adventure is so fascinating to me. I can't fathom what goes on in those masterminds. I can still hear the words of Walter Cronkite "and that's the way it is." I doubt many 12 year olds watched yesterday's launch. Too bad... for them and for our future. History is our future.

Thursday, July 16, 2009 10:47:47 AM

Keep the memories coming.

Update at 3:45 p.m. ET. On Twitter, this made us go wow:

RobinZaleski @nprnews My mom watched the moon landing on a hospital TV in between contractions - she gave birth to my sister the 21st #Apollo11memories

For much more about the Apollo 11 mission and space in general, click here for NPR's complete coverage.

Lift-off on July 16, 1969. NASA/Newsmakers

By Mark Memmott

Today's 40th anniversary of the lift-off of Apollo 11 on its voyage officially kicks off what are surely going to be many days of memories and reports about the first time men stepped on the moon (that anniversary comes Monday).

If you were around in 1969, were you watching and what do you remember most about the mission to the moon? Add your thoughts in the comments thread or over at Twitter (tag it Apollo11memories; we'll spotlight some of the best).

My memory is probably like many others': Being glued to our black-and-white TV -- Walter Cronkite on CBS -- throughout the mission. And thinking that it wouldn't be much longer before astronauts went beyond the moon. Oh, the optimism of youth.

Today on Morning Edition, by the way, NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce reported that "an exhaustive, three-year search for some tapes that contained the original footage of the Apollo 11 moonwalk has concluded that they were probably destroyed during a period when NASA was erasing old magnetic tapes and reusing them to record satellite data."

Here's her report:

There's video of Neil Armstrong stepping on to the lunar surface here.

Update at 9:10 a.m. ET: For a very interactive way of seeing how the Apollo 11 mission unfolded, go to We Choose the Moon, a website from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum. It's counting down to "the launch" right now.

It's also tweeting the mission, as if it were happening today.

And no, it didn't set the flags on fire. Matt Stroshane/Getty Images

 

By Laura Conaway

Things are looking up. After postponing the launch six times, NASA finally sent the space shuttle Endeavour skyward this evening at 6:03, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce reports:

The international space station is about to get a little crowded. There are half a dozen space travelers living up there already, and another seven astronauts blasted off on space shuttle Endeavour.

Endeavour will arrive at the space station on Friday. Once it docks, the astronauts will do construction work. They'll install the last components of the Japanese research lab--including an outdoor "porch" for experiments that need to be exposed to space. NASA is getting closer and closer to completing the space station, and its aging space shuttles are scheduled to be retired next year.

On CNN, Wolf Blitzer obsessed over some fiery flakes of whatnot that appeared to have come off the shuttle before deciding they didn't amount to much. That's good news all around. Godspeed, Endeavour. Have a great trip.

Look at the algae, not the fish. lant_70/Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/lant_70//Flickr Creative Commons

By Laura Conaway

A veteran of the race to map the human genome is back with a new idea. J. Craig Venter, founder and CEO of Synthetic Genomics Inc., just signed an agreement with Exxon Mobil to develop fuel from algae. Exxon is investing $600 million in the project.

Venter talked to NPR's Robert Siegel today about the project. He explained that algae grows faster than other plants scientists are considering as possible biofuels, including switchgrass. Algae solves the biggest problem for alternative energy sources. Venter explains:

"Scale is the big challenge. For a scientist such as myself, going from a test tube to a beaker is usually considered a scale-up reaction. If we can't produce billions of gallons eventually, all this is really just hot air."

After the jump, a couple of other challenges.

Continue reading "Farming Algae For Fuel: From Pond To Pump" >

By Frank James

Space Shuttle Endeavor. NASA TV

First there were two hydrogen gas leaks which scrubbed two earlier launches last month. Then on Saturday there was lightning that hit the launch pad forcing another delay. Sunday, weather got in the way as it did again today. So NASA had to scrub the launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavor a fifth time on Monday.

The plan is to launch again Wednesday. The main purpose of the scheduled 16-day mission is to complete construction of the Japanese Kibo laboratory at the International Space Station, a mission expected to require five space walks.

By Mark Memmott

Fortunately for NPR listeners, they were forewarned. Back in 2002, Liane Hansen reported about the "super ant colony" discovered in Europe. Then, in 2006, it was John Nielsen's turn: He looked at the spread of Argentine ants to the U.S.

But now, BBC News has taken ant reporting to the next level:

"Ant Mega-Colony Takes Over World."

The line that really caught our attention: "The colony may be the largest of its type ever known for any insect species, and could rival humans in the scale of its world domination." (We added the bold to make things look scarier.)

Why do "ants rule"? LiveScience says it's because they adapt so well.

In case you're not feeling creepy enough, here's a short video from "BuggedTV" of Argentine ants in action:

NASA's lunar probes begin journey to the Moon atop an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. NASA

 

By Frank James

America is headed to the Moon again with NASA's successful launch this afternoon of an Atlas V rocket carrying two unmanned lunar probes.

The Lunar Reconnaisance Orbiter should get to the Moon in just over four days and will circle the Moon for a year taking images that will allow scientists to make more accurate maps of the Moon so that scientists will have better information on locations where future manned expeditions should land or avoid. The last manned mission was Apollo 17 in 1972.

The other probe, the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite, will look for signs of water on the Moon, eventually crashing into a crater and spewing dust that scientists will examine from Earth for traces of the liquid.

India, China and Japan have all launched unmanned probes to the moon in recent years so the U.S. so even though the U.S. pioneered manned lunar flights, the current mission ironically gives off the air of Americans playing catch up.

NASA has a very good blog on which you can follow the missions.

Continue reading "NASA Successfully Launches Two Lunar Probes" >

The full moon rises above trees in Ohio in April 2009. AP Photo/Amy Sancetta

 

By Frank James

Here's a surprising fact: scientists have better maps of Mars than they do of the Moon.

As NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce explains in her report on today's All Things Considered, that's one reason NASA plans to launch two unmanned lunar missions tomorrow.

An excerpt:

NELL: Almost forty years ago, Craig Tooley watched two men touch the moon for the first time.

TOOLEY: I clearly remember, you know, the Apollo 11 landing. I was a young child but I was old enough to watch it on television and remember it.

NELL: Now, Tooley is working to find safe landing sites for the next generation of lunar explorers. He's in charge of a spacecraft called the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. It will circle the moon about 31 miles above its surface, and gaze down with seven science instruments to create a detailed map of the landscape.

NASA already knows a fair bit about the area around the moon's equator, where the Apollo astronauts landed. But Tooley says the rest of the moon is more mysterious.

TOOLEY: We, at the moment, have much better maps globally of the planet mars than we do of the Moon.

NELL: Tooley says, on NASA's current maps, the location of some craters and mountains could be off by miles. And the maps don't have detailed information about smaller landscape features which would make it difficult to pick a safe spot for a future moon landing.

An endangered Indiana Bat. AP Photo/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

 

By Frank James

Bats are right up there with snakes for a lot of people in terms of their high creepiness factor. Some of this is no doubt related to the bad rap they've gotten from the blood-sucking Dracula story.

Partly, it's their flying rodent look though they really aren't rodents at all.

Then there are the freak-out tales, many of them apocryphal, of bats getting tangled in people's hair (baldness does have its advantages.)

But as weird and unlovable as bats can be, it's hard to imagine that there are too many people wishing the creatures to be wiped from the face of the earth.

The fungus disease that's attacking bat colonies, however, seems to have the potential to destroy much of the nation's bat population so much so that Congress is getting involved.

Congress heard testimony from bat experts today on the fungal plague that is killing entire colonies of hibernating bats, the worst threat to wildlife in our lifetimes.

As the Associated Press reports:

WASHINGTON (AP) - A mysterious fungus attacking America's bats could spread nationwide within years and represents the most serious threat to wildlife in a century, experts warned Congress Thursday.

Displaying pictures of bats speckled with the white fungus that gave the disease its name - white-nose syndrome - experts described to two House subcommittees Thursday the horror of discovering caves where bats had been decimated by the disease.

As a state wildlife biologist from Vermont put it, one cave there was turned into a morgue, with bats freezing to death outside and so many carcasses littering the cave's floor the stench was too strong for researchers to enter.

They also warned that if nothing more is done to stop its spread, the fungus could strike caves and mines with some of the largest and most endangered populations of hibernating bats in the United States.

Continue reading "Congress Ponders Threat To Nation's Bats" >

By Frank James

NASA's Martian rover named Spirit is bogged down on the Red Planet, unable to free two of its wheels now stuck in the powdery Martian soil.

Apparently the scientists who've been operating the Martian exploration vehicle are stuck, too. Instead of accepting the situation and abandoning the craft after getting five years of good science from it, they're working hard to free the trapped machine.

As Nell Greenfieldboyce reported on All Things Considered this evening, the scientists have developed what appears to be a deep emotional bond to Spirit.

John Callas, NASA project manager for Spirit and its twin rover, Opportunity told her in an interview:

"You know, we talk to them each day. We interact with them, they're responsive to us, they exhibit personalities." When you discover that one of them is in trouble, then you become very worried, much like, you know, a person would become very worried about a dear relative if they suddenly became ill or were in a difficult situation."

This sort of attachment to a machine may seem strange to some of us outsiders but, then, who are we to judge?