"Jet Man" Crosses English Channel Like a Human Rocket

Bad weather had twice postponed the event this week. But Friday—with clear blue skies and a nice tailwind—turned out to be an ideal flight day for the Swiss airline pilot. Around 2 p.m., local time, Rossy leaped from a plane abound 8,200 feet (2,500 meters) above a beach near Calais. Within seconds he had opened his wing, fired up his four miniature jet turbines, and pointed his nose toward Britain. Cruising at speeds of over 125 miles (200 kilometers) an hour, Rossy steered by just moving his head and back. National Geographic...

Team finds Earth's 'oldest rocks'

Earth's most ancient rocks, with an age of 4.28 billion years, have been found on the shore of Hudson Bay, Canada.Writing in Science journal, a team reports finding that a sample of Nuvvuagittuq greenstone is 250 million years older than any rocks known. It may even hold evidence of activity by ancient life forms. If so, it would be the earliest evidence of life on Earth - but co-author Don Francis cautioned that this had not been established. "The rocks contain a very special chemical signature - one that can only be found in rocks which are very, very old," he said. The professor of geology, who is based at McGill University in Montreal, added: "Nobody has found that signal any place else on the Earth."BBC Article...

Smells Influence Dreams, Study Says

When researchers gave dreaming subjects whiffs of rose scent, the subjects reported rosier dreams. The scent of rotten eggs, on the other hand, provoked unpleasant dreams, the study found. The different scents were not incorporated literally into a person's dreams, said study author Boris Stuck of the University Hospital Mannheim in Germany."There was hardly any kind of a dream dealing with smelling and tasting," he said.Rather, the pleasant odor appeared to affect the subjects' emotional ratings of their dreams. National Geographic Article...

China's 1st Space Walk Mission a Step Toward the Moon?

China is counting down toward Friday's launch of its most challenging space mission yet, which is set to include the country's first space walk. The mission furthers an ambitious space program that plans to build a base on the moon—in cooperation with NASA or not. The flight of the Shenzhou VII rocket—China's third manned mission—is scheduled to take off not quite a year after Beijing deployed its first spacecraft to map the lunar surface. National Geographic Article...

Progress transport ship docks with ISS

KOROLEV, Moscow region, September 17 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia’s Progress transport ship has docked with the International Space Station (ISS). “At 22:43 Moscow time, Progress M-65 docked with the service module Zvezda,” the Mission Control centre told Itar-Tass. The transport ship brought over 3.5 tonnes of supplies, including food, water, fuel, equipment and presents for the crew, as well as the first computerised spacesuit for space walks. The docking was initially scheduled for September 13 but was delayed. Itar-Tass...

Arctic ice melts to second-lowest level: scientists

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Arctic sea ice melted to its second-lowest level this summer, rising slightly from 2007's record but still showing a downward trend that is a key symptom of climate change, U.S. scientists said on Tuesday. The ice slipped to its minimum extent for 2008 on September 12, when it covered 1.74 million square miles (4.52 million square km), and now appears to be growing as the Arctic starts its seasonal cooldown, the National Snow and Ice Data Center said. Reuters Article...