• NASA’S Spitzer Finds Distant Galaxies Grazed On Gas
  Galaxies once thought of as voracious tigers are more like grazing cows, according to a new study using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope.
• NASA Completes Mirror Polishing For James Webb Space Telescope
  Mirrors are a critical part of a telescope.
• NASA Plans Air Pollution Flights Over Maryland On July 1
  NASA’s DISCOVER-AQ air quality field campaign is scheduled to take to the skies over the Baltimore-Washington traffic corridor on Friday, July 1, from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. EDT.

• NASA Flight Directors Available For Interviews For Final Shuttle Mission
  NASA Flight Directors Kwatsi Alibaruho (KWAT-see Ah-lee-buh-roo-hoe) of Maywood, Ill., and Chris Edelen of Martinsville, Va., are available for live satellite interviews from 6 to 7:50 a.m. CDT on Wednesday, July 6.
• NASA Awards Safety Center Technical Support Services Contract
  NASA has selected Alphaport Inc. of Cleveland to provide technical support services to the NASA Safety Center.
• NASA Announces Prelaunch Events And Countdown Details For Final Shuttle Flight
  News conferences, events and operating hours for the news center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Fla., are set for the final space shuttle launch.

• NASA Online Videos Provide New Approach To Teach Science To Public
  NASA’s new video series offers the public a fast and fun way to learn about scientific discoveries and facts about Earth, the solar system and beyond.
• NASA Sets Launch Date For Final Space Shuttle Mission
  Space shuttle Atlantis’ Commander Chris Ferguson and his three crewmates are scheduled to begin a 12-day mission to the International Space Station with a launch at 11:26 a.m. EDT on July 8, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The sun rises over the Atlantic Ocean silhouetting space shuttle Atlantis’ external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters on Launch Pad 39A at NASA‘s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in the image taken on June 23, 2011. Image Credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann

(Washington State University) A Washington State University student’s undergraduate research is challenging a widely held assumption on the best way to analyze old DNA in anthropological and forensic investigations. Sarah “Misa” Runnells’ claim is weighty enough to be published this week in the peer-reviewed, online journal PLoS ONE. At issue is the best way to sequence “ancient” DNA, bits of genetic code pulled from remains up to 800,000 years old.

(Washington University in St. Louis) DNA analysis of more than 1,300 coconuts from around the world reveals that the coconut was brought under cultivation in two separate locations, one in the Pacific basin and the other in the Indian Ocean basin. What’s more, coconut genetics also preserve a record of prehistoric trade routes and of the colonization of the Americas.

(University of Maryland) Archaeologists from the University of Maryland are unearthing a unique picture of early Irish immigrants in the Baltimore area — of city children taught at home to read and write before widespread public education or child labor laws, and insular rural communities defying assimilation. “These people helped build supply materials for the Washington Monument and US Capitol, yet their voices have been muted in history,” says UMD archaeologist Stephen Brighton. “We’re reconstructing their inner world.”

(CSIRO Australia) For the first time, greenhouse gas data are accessed easily on a new CSIRO website. The site shows the levels of greenhouse gases measured in the Southern Hemisphere atmosphere for the past 35 years.

(Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) A new technique developed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute allows researchers to collect large amounts of biochemical information from nanoscale bone samples. Along with adding important new insights into the fight against osteoporosis, this innovation opens up an entirely new proteomics-based approach to analyzing bone quality. It could even aid the archeological and forensic study of human skeletons.

(Smithsonian) Researchers from the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Florida have announced the discovery of a bone fragment, approximately 13,000 years old, in Florida with an incised image of a mammoth or mastodon. This engraving is the oldest and only known example of Ice Age art to depict a proboscidean (the order of animals with trunks) in the Americas. The team’s research is published online in the Journal of Archaeological Science.