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When Apollo 11 landed on the moon, NASA’s plan was to continue manned lunar missions through Apollo 20. But history turned out differently. The last three missions, still in planning stages, were canceled. Hardware that would have flown to the moon ended up as museum exhibits. And scientists and space enthusiasts were left to contemplate what Apollos 18 through 20 might have accomplished. On January 4, 1970, less than six months after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left humanity’s first lunar footprints, NASA announced Apollo 20’s cancellation....

The armed forces have been using simulators to train troops and pilots for battle since World War I, but this virtual combat has typically relied on joysticks, visors and other sensors to make the action realistic. New developments in motion-sensing technology, however, promise to deliver training simulations that let a user or group of users control the on-screen action using their own arms and legs to communicate with the simulator....

By Alisa Tang BANGKOK, Feb 16 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Governments must persuade businesses to invest in protecting cities from natural disasters, and climate and development experts should heed the needs of poor communities hardest hit by climate catastrophes, experts said. Some 80 percent of global wealth is generated in cities, so the private sector has an interest in protecting those assets, according to Peter King, who works for a USAID project that helps Asia-Pacific countries polish climate adaptation projects and access funding....

Common sense portends that when the males of a particular species suddenly become scarce, the females will have a tough time finding mates to fertilize their eggs. But new research, led by a group at University College London, finds that females do not resign themselves to forced virginity. Instead they become promiscuous scavengers, taking advantage of a single male’s high capacity for mating. The new study appears in this week’s issue of Current Biology....

It sounds like a digital alchemist’s question. How do you turn virtual gold into the real item? Hundreds of thousands of “gold farmers” in developing countries have found a lucrative answer. They have become entrepreneurs who make their living by profiting from online games. By assuming fantasy roles in these games, they kill monsters, mine ore or engage in other activities that earn “virtual gold” that they then sell to other players, often in rich nations, for real-world currency....

Electrons rule our world, but not so long ago they were only an idea. This month marks the 120th anniversary of a profound and influential creation, the electron theory of Dutch physicist Hendrik Antoon Lorentz. His electron was not merely a hypothesized elementary particle; it was the linchpin of an ambitious theory of nature. Today physicists are accustomed to the notion that a complete description of nature can rise out of simple, beautiful equations, yet prior to Lorentz that was a mystic vision....

With the discovery of the Higgs boson or something very like it under its belt, the world’s most powerful particle collider is ready to take a well-earned rest. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will shut down on 11 February ahead of around two years of upgrade work. The break, known as LS1 for ‘long stop one’, is needed to correct several flaws in the original design of the collider, which is located underground at CERN, Europe’s particle-physics laboratory near Geneva in Switzerland....

NASA leaders revealed April 8 the framework of their plans to enact President Obama’s budget request for 2011, a contentious proposal that would redirect the agency’s current efforts away from a moon landing in the next decade and that would rely on commercial partners to launch astronauts into orbit. In a teleconference with reporters NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Deputy Administrator Lori Garver described how future funds and projects would be allocated among the agency’s many centers across the country, assuming that Obama’s budget wins congressional approval....

The economic debate in the U.S. regarding the fiscal stimulus package has revealed, once again, the soft underbelly of modern economics. It’s perhaps inevitable that a public debate over the allocation of trillions of dollars of taxes and spending should be cacophonous and confused, but the poor quality of the scientific discussion about the fiscal stimulus plan is unjustified. Economists have not helped the public to sort out crucial issues in the debate, leaving public policy to a hurried mish-mash of conflicting interests....

Drugs that act by modifying a patient’s genes are close to approval in the United States, and one is already available in Europe. The developments mark a triumph for the field of gene therapy, once considered controversial. But with estimated price tags of at least US$1 million per patient, how will anyone pay for these treatments? The question is just one in a broader debate about how to finance a range of super-expensive drugs that are now available, thanks to an explosion in genetic and molecular-biology research over the past 20 years....

SOCIETY’S ILLNESS “American Epidemic,” by Melinda Wenner Moyer, is very timely and relevant in describing how resurgent infectious disease outbreaks in U.S. cities are tied to increasing economic inequality. I am a paraplegic who is retired because of health problems, and most of my medical bills are paid through Medicare. I also receive other government support, such as Social Security, food stamps and a housing subsidy. There is an agenda against such funding for the poor and the disabled, as has been evident in the Trump administration’s attempts to cut Medicaid....

The numbers didn’t add up. Even as Earth grew warmer and glaciers and ice sheets thawed, decades of satellite data seemed to show that the rate of sea-level rise was holding steady—or even declining. Now, after puzzling over this discrepancy for years, scientists have identified its source: a problem with the calibration of a sensor on the first of several satellites launched to measure the height of the sea surface using radar....

Rescue crews arrive on the scene of a collapsed mine and drill a borehole several hundred meters down to a small cavern. They put a cylindrical, camera-equipped robot made of metal into the hole that will descend and search for survivors. As the robot crawls downward, the ground shifts, collapsing the borehole to half its diameter, crushing the bot. Now what? If the robot had been made of deformable polymers, it could have simply lengthened and narrowed its shape, like a worm, and continued on its mission....

Key concepts Physics Speed Forces Weight Gravity Geometry Introduction Have you spent time this summer spinning a Hula-Hoop around your waist or arm? Could you do it easily or was it difficult? Have you ever wondered how Hula-Hoops work or what makes them able to spin around a person’s waist or arm—seeming to defy gravity? The answer can be explained by physics, which can help you determine what makes an effective Hula-Hoop....

Dear EarthTalk How can I make good use of the rainwater that runs down my roof and into my gutters? —Brian Smith, Nashua, NH For most of us, the rain that falls on our roof runs off into the ground or the sewer system. But if you’re motivated to save a little water and re-distribute it on your lawns or plants—or even use it for laundry, dishes or other interior needs—collecting rainwater from your gutters’ downspouts is a no-brainer....

As discussed in the main text of “Seeing with Superconductors,” superconducting detectors are revolutionizing a wide variety of research and technology fields, including nuclear nonproliferation and homeland security, analysis of microchips, submillimeter band astronomy and the study of the cosmic microwave background. Here I talk about two more: quantum cryptography and the search for dark matter. Quantum information. The promise of quantum information is high, including quantum computers and unbreakable cryptography....

Before thousands of spectators at the world’s largest air show, Airbus SAS introduced its newest airliner, the A350 XWB. The twin-engine wide-body flew over Le Bourget Airport in Paris earlier today, one week after its maiden flight. Airbus has secured more than 600 orders for three versions of the aircraft, according to company documents. Beneath the blue and white company livery, the A350’s airframe is composed of 72 percent lightweight materials like aluminum and titanium alloys....

If two fair coins, a dime and a penny are flipped and you are told that the dime came up heads, then what is the likelihood that the penny comes up heads as well? Obviously 1/2. On the other hand, if you are told that two coins are flipped and at least one is heads, then there is only a 1/3 chance that the other is heads. It seems paradoxical. But there is a simple way to understand this....

The longest total solar eclipse of the century—to be unsurpassed in duration until June 13, 2132—was witnessed today by millions as a swath of Asia was cast under the moon’s shadow that cut through parts of India and China. I journeyed to north central India to try to catch a glimpse of one of nature’s most awesome spectacles. I found the entire country excited by the eclipse. Many thousands traveled to the zone of totality, whereas in many places an age-old superstition still held sway....

By Zeeya MeraliIt hasn’t even been found yet, but the elusive Higgs particle is already generating controversy. As feelings run high over a recent conference in France, the particle physics community is split over who should get credit out of the six theoretical physicists who developed the mechanism behind its existence.The Higgs particle is predicted to exist as part of the mechanism believed to give particles their mass, and is the only piece of the Standard Model of particle physics that remains to be discovered....