World's oldest experiment ready for a drop of excitement
By Katie Hunt, for CNN
At some point in the next few months, a tendril of black tar-like substance will drop from a glass funnel and land in a beaker under a bell jar in what is thought to be the world's oldest scientific experiment.
The "pitch drop" at the University of Queensland in Australia began in 1927 and is designed to show that the brittle pitch - which was once used to waterproof boats and can be shattered by a hammer - is in fact, a liquid.
But the progress of the pitch through the funnel stem is so slow that now, 86 years later, only the ninth drop is forming.
Saturn shows off spectacular storm
By Sophia Dengo, CNN
NASA's Cassini spacecraft returned a stunning image of a hurricane on Saturn's northern pole. The shot (pictured above) was taken on November 27 and is one of the first views of Saturn's north pole lit by the sun.
The colors in the image are not the real ones. They represent projections of various wavelengths of near-infrared light. Red is used to represent low clouds, and green indicates high clouds.
Scientists don't know how long this storm, which has an eye that measures 1,250 miles across, with cloud speeds as fast as 330 mph, has been active. The last time the planet's north pole was imaged in 2004, it was in darkness.
According to NASA, images were taken with a narrow-angle camera on Cassini, "using a combination of spectral filters sensitive to wavelengths of near-infrared light."
Studying this storm may lead scientists to new insights about hurricanes on Earth.
Cassini is one part of the Cassini-Huygens mission operated by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. Read more about it here, here and here.
Glowing lambs born in Uruguay
By Elizabeth Landau, CNN
Scientists in Uruguay announced that they had genetically modified sheep such that the animals glow green in ultraviolet light. Click through the gallery above to learn more!
Virgin Galactic one flight closer to space tourism
Virgin Galactic is one flight closer to becoming a commercial "spaceline." The company's passenger spacecraft, SpaceShipTwo, completed its first rocket-powered flight Monday morning above the Mojave Desert in California.
About 45 minutes into the flight, SpaceShipTwo was released from its carrier craft, WhiteKnightTwo. Ignition of the rocket motor was triggered, carrying SpaceShipTwo to a maximum altitude of 56,000 feet. During the 16-second engine burn, the spaceship broke the sound barrier, according to a statement from Virgin Galactic.
The rocket-powered portion of the flight lasted a little more than 10 minutes, and the entire flight took about an hour. The flight was not a space flight. Virgin Galactic said it will continue testing this year and plans to reach full space flight by the end of 2013.
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