He was the first human being in space. On the anniversary of his historic flight, the Kremlin refuses a new inquiry into his mysterious death.

China and Russia plan to head to Mars and Phobos, there’s a bizarre hexagonal pattern on Saturn, and the demise of the dinosaurs may not have benefited our ancestors as directly as we once thought.
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The latest indicators are back to saying that Mars contains significant quantities of water, which would be good news for future exploration and fans of Kim Stanley Robinson.

Also, gaseous seas have been spotted on Titan.

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Recent science stories of interest include a consideration of what lice might reveal about human prehistory. Also the Vulcan Science Council modern science has determined that time-travel is impossible.

More talk surrounds the possibility of the twenty-first century resembling the one from our collective dreams. Do business opportunities await us on the moon?
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Private space-travel will soon be licensed,
serious plans are underway for lunar living quarters, and a theoretical Victorian nanomachine is now a reality.

Thanks to Chris for those links.

Last week Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ space project, revealed the details behind a November launch. The ship did not actually leave earth’s atmosphere, but this represents another early step towards privatized spaceflight.

A recent breakthrough may make nuclear fusion a viable source of power within a decade. We’ve heard it before, of course, but this latest announcement, by Robert Bussard, is compelling.

Nobel-winning astrophysicist John Mather JWST talks about the next generation of space telescope. Elsewhere, earthlings listen for television and radio signals from other worlds.

At about 6:15 am (local time), a huge fireball sprayed across the sky here in Denver. One of local station’s traffic copter caught it live. Don’t bother with the sound, the commentary is truly inane.