♦ When mental games come into play

U.S. gymnast and team captain Alicia Sacramone fell off the balance beam and during her floor exercise in the women?s team finals in Beijing. Olympian mistakes befall athletes who think too much, sports psychologists say. The latest examples came Wednesday in Beijing (Tuesday night ET) when the U.S. women's gymnastics team made errors that dashed its bid for a gold medal. Meanwhile...	1 vote

♦ Hubble Captures Magnetic Monster

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has found an answer to a long-standing puzzle by resolving giant but delicate filaments shaped by a strong magnetic field around the active galaxy NGC 1275.	1 vote

♦ Report: Extinction threatens half world's primates

A rhesus macaque monkey walks on Cayo Santiago, known as Monkey Island off the eastern coast of Puerto Rico, Tuesday, July 29, 2008. EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) — Nearly half of the world's 634 types of primates are in danger of becoming extinct because of human activity, according to a scientific review released Tuesday.	1 vote

♦ Rosetta Tracking Asteroid Steins

Private space firm SpaceX is trying to determine why its Falcon 1 rocket failed to reach orbit for the third time. The vehicle was carrying three space satellites, including a NASA space sail.	1 vote

♦ NASA to Broadcast Historical Highlights in High Definition

WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -NASA Television will broadcast a special high definition (HDTV) feed of two hours of highlights from America's human spaceflight history as the agency celebrates its 50th anniversary. The NASA HD highlights will be broadcast on Friday, Aug.	1 vote

♦ Students Launch Sensor Into Space

Operation Immortality(TM), the project to create a digital time capsule of the human race, has joined forces with Planet Make-Over, an entertainment driven social network designed to demonstrably reverse the effects of Global Warming.	1 vote

♦ Closure of Steel Bridge Means Longer Commute but a Better Future Ride

By Corey Paul, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore. Aug. 4--Logan Winborn, 21, of Northwest Portland, uses the weekend to do his chores. But the closure of the Steel Bridge across the Willamette River meant an hourlong trip Sunday in search of new socks.	1 vote

♦ NASA Seeks To Predict Aerosols' Effect On Cloud Cover

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Aug. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -NASA has selected Brevard Achievement Center Inc., of Rockledge, Fla., to provide custodial services at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla. The new firm-fixed price contract begins on Oct. 1, 2008.	1 vote

♦ A Voyage Beyond Even His Imagination

By Mark Carreau, Houston Chronicle Jul. 28--AUSTIN -Richard Garriott's Texas-size appetite for big adventure has unleashed some far-flung cravings. There is the dive in a small Russian sub two miles below the murky North Atlantic to explore the shattered deck of the Titanic.	1 vote

♦ NASA safety panel worries about moon ship design

In this artist rendition, Orion orbits the moon with disc-shaped solar arrays tracking the sun to generate electricity. WASHINGTON — NASA is not properly emphasizing safety in its design of a new spaceship and its return-to-the-moon program faces money, morale and leadership problems, an agency safety panel found Monday.	1 vote

♦ Space Exploration Comes to the Classroom

By Roger Fillion Hoping to spur more youngsters to seek a career in space exploration, Lockheed Martin Corp. is launching an online program for students and teachers to learn about NASA's mission to the moon and Mars. The program, dubbed Orion's Path, is an interactive lesson.	1 vote

♦ Cadavers Used to Test New Space Capsule

File this one under "E" for "Ewww factor." NASA has used human cadavers to test the new Orion space capsule that is supposed to take astronauts back to the moon sometime around 2020.	1 vote

♦ Mars lander has trouble delivering soil sample to its oven

A panoramic mosaic of images taken by the Surface Stereo Imager on board NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander. This mosaic documents the midnight sun during several days of the mission. PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — A sample of icy soil collected by the robotic arm of NASA's Phoenix Mars lander is apparently stuck in its scoop, foiling efforts to analyze it.	1 vote

♦ Dolly may have shrunk Gulf 'dead zone'

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The oxygen-starved "dead zone" that forms every summer in the Gulf of Mexico is a bit smaller than predicted this year because Hurricane Dolly stirred up the water, a scientist reported Monday. There is too little oxygen to support sea life for about 8,000 square miles — just under the record of 8,006 square miles recorded in 2001, said Nancy Rabalais...	1 vote

♦ U.S. Opposition to Iran's Nuclear Proliferation May Impact NASA's Space Station Participation

WASHINGTON _ The international space station, a $100 billion symbol of global cooperation, may become a casualty of U.S. opposition to Iran's nuclear ambitions.	1 vote

♦ Yerba mansa 'calming herb' may be next echinacea

Yerba mansa, a medicinal herb, at New Mexico State University's Sustainable Agriculture Science Center in Alcalde, N.M. Experts in the industry say yerba mansa could become as popular as other medicinal herbs including goldenseal and Echinacea. ALBUQUERQUE — The plant has been described by local residents as magical, its qualities almost mythical. The native herb yerba mansa...	1 vote

♦ Barbadians slam discovery, naming of tiny snake

The world's tiniest snake is shown curled up on a U.S. quarter. SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A small snake has sparked a big debate in Barbados. Residents of the wealthy Caribbean nation have been heating up blogs and clogging radio airwaves to vent their anger at a U.S. scientist, who earlier this week announced his "discovery" of the world's smallest snake and named it "Leptotyphlops carlae...	1 vote

♦ Sat's Amazing

By MARK JEFFERIES THESE incredible images never seen by the public show that UK looks ace... from space. Pictures taken from satellites, planes and helicopters then processed by the latest computer generated imagery reveal flight paths, roads and shipping lanes at work.	1 vote

♦ Jason 2 Begins Mapping Oceans

Image 1: OSTM/Jason 2 map of sea-level anomalies from July 4 to July 14, 2008 (left). Compare to the same 10-day period of data from Jason 1 (right).Image 2: OSTM/Jason 2 map of wind speeds from July 4 to July 14, 2008 (left). Compare to the same 10-day period of data from Jason 1 (left).	1 vote

♦ Blood still carries protection against killer 1918 flu

WASHINGTON — Nearly a century after history's most lethal flu faded away, survivors' bloodstreams still carry super-potent protection against the 1918 virus, demonstrating the remarkable durability of the human immune system.	1 vote