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New Horizons is a NASA unmanned spacecraft designed to fly by Pluto and its moons (including Charon) and transmit images and data back to Earth. Mission planners hope that NASA will approve plans to continue the mission with a fly-by of a Kuiper Belt Object and return further data. A consortium of organizations, led by Southwest Research Institute and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, has built the craft. The mission's principal investigator is S. Alan Stern of Southwest Research. The probe successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 14:00 EST January 19, 2006 and flew past Jupiter on February 28, 2007 for a gravity assist.

The primary scientific objectives are to characterize the global geology and morphology and map the surface composition of Pluto and Charon, and study the neutral atmosphere of Pluto and its escape rate. Other objectives include studying time variability of Pluto's surface and atmosphere; imaging and mapping areas of Pluto and Charon at high-resolution; characterizing Pluto's upper atmosphere, ionosphere, and energetic particle environment; searching for an atmosphere around Charon; refining bulk parameters of Pluto and Charon; and searching for additional satellites and rings.

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Credit: Fawcett & Lee

Craniometry is the technique of measuring the bones of the skull. Craniometry was once intensively practiced in anthropology and ethnology. Human skulls can be classified into three main categories based on cephalic index: dolichocephalic: long and thin; brachycephalic: short and broad; mesocephalic: intermediate length and breadth.

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Did you know...

• ...that the endangered golden lion tamarin (pictured) has a long, but not prehensile, tail?
• ...that the Witch's hat is the common name of a colourful orange-red toadstool?
• ...that Grandi's series 1 − 1 + 1 − 1 + • • • is divergent and appears to equal 0, yet in some sense "sums" to ¹⁄₂ — a paradox once linked to the creation ex nihilo of the universe?
• ...that Derek Freeman was an anthropologist whose refutation of Margaret Mead's work "ignited controversy of a scale, visibility, and ferocity never before seen in anthropology"?
• ...that the New Year's Eve snowstorm of 1963/1964 dropped over 17 inches of snow at Huntsville, Alabama, simultaneously setting new snowfall records for any day, week, or month in their history?

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Science News

Science news on Wikipedia February 13: Researchers at Yale School of Medicine develop a blood test which detects early stage ovarian cancer with 99 percent accuracy. (ScienceDaily) February 13: A transitional fossil in bat evolution may help resolve a longstanding debate, whether echolocation or flight came first. The 52 million year old fossil has wing development while the ear lacks echolocation structures. (ScienceDaily) February 11: Researchers at the University of Delaware find a promising way to repair the gene defect that causes spinal muscular atrophy. (UDel) February 11: A rat study found that rats given artificial sweetener gained more weight than those on a sugar diet. Scientists speculate the body increases the metabolism anticipating calories that never come, then requires more food to make up the shortfall. (SciAm) February 8: The first commercial vessel to use a kite to help save fuel created by SkySails finished its maiden voyage. Estimates are that the ship saved 10-15% fuel while the kite was in use, which translates into $1,000 to $1,500 in fuel costs per day.(Nature) February 8: San Diego scientists have successfully used stem cells to treat Type I diabetes in mice. (NewScientist) February 7: A new knee device is demonstrated that can generate electricity efficiently from walking with minimal effort. The system acquires energy from deceleration similar to how hybrid-electric cars regain energy from regenerative braking. (CBC) February 7: New studies in the journal Science conclude biofuels are not beneficial to climate change, as they require increased land use to grow crops and unintentionally increases the cost of food. (SciAm) ...Archive

Science news on Wikinews December 19: NASA flyby of Saturn moon Titan produces first image of liquid on another world December 19: Iraqi insurgents intercepted drone feeds using widely available software December 14: Google mobile phone rumours ramp up December 10: Hubble telescope spots oldest galaxies ever seen December 7: Find me all the red balloons; MIT wins DARPA challenge December 4: American botanist Lou Jost discovers world's smallest orchid November 30: LHC sets new particle energy acceleration record November 25: Sakurai Prize awarded for Higgs boson theories November 25: British Climatic Research Unit's emails hacked November 22: Astronaut's baby born 200 miles below him

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