Gone Bennu hunting: The OSIRIS-REx launch and other top stories.

• Gone Bennu hunting: The OSIRIS-REx launch

  

  On the day that marked half a century since the first "Star Trek" episode aired on TV, a NASA space probe boldly took off toward an asteroid called Bennu on Thursday, to dig up and bring back some cosmic dust that could hold clues to the birth of our solar system.It's another example of NASA "turning science fiction into science fact," said NASA's chief scientist Ellen Stofan from the launch location in Cape Canaveral, Fla., where thousands had gathered for the sendoff.A robotic hunter that res..

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• Flatworm parasite named after Barack Obama: Is that a compliment?

  

  When Thomas Platt, a newly retired biology professor from Saint Mary’s College, discovered a previously unknown species of parasite, he chose to name it after his fifth cousin, twice removed: President Obama.Baracktrema obamai is a 2-inch long, thread-like, parasitic flatworm that infects the lungs of two species of freshwater turtles in Southeast Asia. The flatworm represents the discovery of not only a new species, but a new genus – the level of biological classification above species. It's a..

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• Mars rover Curiosity views spectacular layered rock formations

  

  This view from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) in NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows an outcrop with finely layered rocks within the "Murray Buttes" region on lower Mount Sharp. The buttes and mesas rising above the surface in this area are eroded …more.

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• Falcon 9 explosion could be 'most difficult and complex failure' in SpaceX history

  

  Falcon 9 explosion could be ‘most difficult and complex failure’ in SpaceX history Eric Shear September 10th, 2016 Photo Credit: Carleton Bailie / SpaceFlight Insider It has been over a week since the Sept. 1 launch pad explosion that destroyed both the Falcon 9 rocket and $200 million Amos-6 satellite. In that time, SpaceX has shed few details about what exactly happened. In a Sept. 9 post on twitter, the company CEO and founder, Elon Musk, said the failure could be “the most difficult and c..

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• Is human hair as distinctive as human DNA?

  

  DNA is a staple of crime scene investigations, particularly those seen on TV, because it is far and away the most accurate method we have of matching evidence to a specific individual.But not all crime scenes have clear DNA markers, so in 2009 the US National Research Council issued a call for new research and reforms to repair deficiencies in forensic science methods.In response, a research team lead by Glendon Parker at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California published a stud..

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