• NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft Enters Orbit Around Asteroid Vesta
  NASA’s Dawn spacecraft on Saturday became the first probe ever to enter orbit around an object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

• Final Shuttle Crew Answers Student Questions From Space–Event Time Update
  NASA is updating the time for an event on Sunday, July 17, when space shuttle astronauts aboard the International Space Station will answer videotaped questions from middle school students.
• NASA, United Launch Alliance Announce New Commercial Crew Agreement
  NASA and United Launch Alliance (ULA) managers will hold a news conference on Monday, July 18, at ULA headquarters in Centennial, Colo., to announce a new Commercial Crew Development agreement.
• President Obama Speaks With Shuttle And Space Station Crews
  President Barack Obama praised crew members aboard space shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station during a call to the docked ships from the White House on Friday.

Astronaut Ron Garan took this image during the spacewalk conducted on Tues., July 12, 2011. It shows the International Space Station with Space Shuttle Atlantis docked on the right and a Russian Soyuz on the far left. In the foreground is the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) experiment installed during the STS-134 mission. AMS is a state-of-the-art particle physics detector designed to use the unique environment of space to advance knowledge of the universe and lead to the understanding of the universe’s origin by searching for antimatter and dark matter, and measuring cosmic rays. Image Credit: NASA

(Arizona State University) On Aug. 25, NBC Learn, National Science Foundation and DISCOVER magazine partner with Arizona State University to host a dynamic Town Hall discussion about water resources, shifting climate patterns and development of better, more sustainable water practices.

(Max-Planck-Gesellschaft) Many plants use similar genes to build their cell walls.

(University of Washington) The amount of carbon dioxide taken out of the atmosphere by forests could be quadrupled in 100 years by harvesting regularly and using the wood in place of steel and concrete that devour fossil fuels during manufacturing, producing carbon dioxide.

(The New York Botanical Garden) With antioxidant levels two to four times higher than the blueberries available in the US, two species native to Central and South America may challenge one of summer’s favorite treats as a source of these disease-fighting substances.

(Kansas State University) A Kansas State University geographer is part of a research team out to prove what environmental scientists have suspected for years: Increasing the production of soybean and biofuel crops in Brazil increases deforestation in the Amazon. Although this cause-and-effect finding seems fairly straightforward, the issue of deforestation in the Amazon is more complex and more devastating than previously believed.

(United States Department of Agriculture – Research, Education and Economics) There is literally a way to undercut dust emissions in the very driest parts of the Pacific Northwest’s Columbia Plateau region, according to a US Department of Agriculture scientist.

(FECYT – Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology) More than 500,000 tons of onion waste are thrown away in the European Union each year. However, scientists say this could have a use as food ingredients. The brown skin and external layers are rich in fiber and flavonoids, while the discarded bulbs contain sulfurous compounds and fructans. All of these substances are beneficial to health.