Endeavour’s Mission and the Matter of Antimatter

Space Shuttle Endeavour on launch pad (Photo: AP)

Scientists hope to learn more about the origins of the universe once a sophisticated particle detector arrives at the earth-orbiting International Space Station and starts searching for antimatter and dark matter. Researchers explained their goals for the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and the upcoming Shuttle Endeavour mission at a NASA mission preview briefing in late March.

US Space Program Goes Commercial

Elon Musk, CEO of Space Exploration Technologies Corp (Photo: Getty Images/ AFP)

While current attention is focused on the Endeavour mission, on June 28, Atlantis will become the last space shuttle ever to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center, marking the end of NASA’s 30-year space shuttle program. NASA is getting out of the business of sending astronauts on missions using its own spacecraft. Instead, the US space agency will rely on privately designed and owned rockets to ferry cargo and crew to the orbiting International Space Station.

Global Organizations Make Push for Vaccinations

(Photo: AP-Alexander F. Yuan)

Preventable diseases like pneumonia and diarrhea are among the leading causes of childrens’ deaths in the developing world. This week, people around the world are taking action to put an end to deaths from these diseases by promoting vaccination campaigns for children and adults.

India Aims to Calm Nuclear Power Anxiety

Activists from the Anti-Nuclear Struggles Solidarity Forum shout slogans (Photo: REUTERS/B Mathur)

India’s prime minister says he will soon submit legislation to parliament on establishing a new organization to supervise nuclear safety in India. It is one of several steps by the government aimed at calming public anxiety over a planned coastal nuclear complex some fear could produce a repeat of Japan’s nuclear catastrophe.

US to Supply Healthier Food to World’s Hungry

USAID is making changes to its food aid program in an effort to fight malnutrition more effectively among some of the world's most vulnerable people. (Photo: USAID)

A new report from US Agency for International Development suggests significant changes should be made in the content of foods the United States delivers to the world’s hungry. The recommendations are intended to make US food aid more nutritious. Steve Baragona fills us in with the details.

One on One: Physicist Dejan Stojkovic

More than 12 billion years of cosmic history are shown in this unprecedented, panoramic, full-color view of thousands of galaxies in various stages of assembly. (Photo: NASA)

When many of us think of the beginning of the universe, the so called “big bang” we think of just that…  one huge explosion that created the universe into the three-dimensional existence we live in today.  In our “One-on-One” segment this week we ask… is it possible that the universe began as a single line or even a dot and evolved into “3D”?  Is the evolution of the universe continuing into the fourth, fifth and even eleventh dimension?

Last year, physicist Dejan Stojkovic and colleagues theorized this to be so. Now, in a new paper that appears in “Physical Review Letters”, Professor Stojkovic and Loyola Marymount University physicist Jonas Mureika describe a test that could prove or disprove what has become known as the “vanishing dimensions” hypothesis.