A 422-million-mile, 10-month journey to Mars ended Sunday with the successful arrival of the Phoenix lander on the Martian surface.

The mission, to the northerly arctic region of Mars, is designed to gather chemical data from soil and water that will allow researchers to better understand the geologic history of water on Mars.  This data will also provide clues as to whether biological life ever existed on this now cold planet.

A full description of the Phoenix mission can be found on NASA’s website, complete with pictures, mission updates, and a very cool video summarizing the mission.

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On Wednesday, President Bush signed the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), a bill designed to prevent employers and health insurance companies from discriminating against individuals based on their genetic makeup, into law.

As reported in an earlier news story, this legislation was under consideration in Congress for more than a decade.  It’s good to see that it’s finally here!

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In what several scientists have termed “winning the astronomy lottery,” Princeton researchers were able for the first time to witness a supernova, or the explosive death of a star, as it happened.

Supernovae happen when the hydrogen fuel powering the star’s nuclear reactor “furnace” runs out.  During a star’s lifetime, hydrogen is converted to helium, then to oxygen and carbon, then finally to iron.  As this process nears its end, the star’s core becomes so heavy that it collapses on itself and explodes.  The explosion sends the matter of the star – carbon, oxygen, iron, nitrogen, and other elements – hurtling into space.  It is theorized that many elements on Earth, including those that make up our bodies, originated from supernovae.

As is true with many scientific discoveries, good fortune played a key part in the observation.  Researchers were observing the remnants of an old supernova in the galaxy NGC2770 using an X-ray telescope when the new supernova occurred.   The initial x-ray blast of a supernova is the earliest event in the explosion, and had never before been captured.

Even in the cosmos, it pays to be looking in the right place at the right time!

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With the summer Olympics just around the corner, a report in this month’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism is unusually timely.  The report suggests that some illicit testosterone users have evaded detection because of their genes.

Researchers found that nearly two-thirds of Asian men and approximately 10% of Caucasian men lack the gene that converts testosterone into a form that can be detected in urine.  Thus, these individuals can take extra testosterone without the fear of being caught via routine screening methods. Dr. Don Catlin, the chief executive of Anti-Doping Research, called it “…a license to cheat.”

While there are more sensitive methods available to catch offenders, they are more expensive and time consuming. It remains to be seen whether this news will lead to genetic tests being required for elite-level athletes, or whether a different test can be developed.

It will be interesting to see how the International Olympic Committee responds to this news – and Major League Baseball, for that matter.

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