ScienceDaily (Aug. 19, 2012) — Today, NASA's Mars rover Curiosity fired its laser for the first time on Mars, using the beam from a science instrument to interrogate a fist-size rock called "Coronation."

ScienceDaily (Aug. 19, 2012) — A major improvement in the world's lightest solid material and best solid insulating material, described in Philadelphia August 19, may put more of this space-age wonder into insulated clothing, refrigerators with thinner walls that hold more food, building insulation and other products.

ScienceDaily (Aug. 19, 2012) — Computing prime factors may sound like an elementary math problem, but try it with a large number, say one that contains more than 600 digits, and the task becomes enormously challenging and impossibly time-consuming. Now, a group of researchers at UC Santa Barbara has designed and fabricated a quantum processor capable of factoring a composite number -- in this case the number 15 -- into its constituent prime factors, 3 and 5.

ScienceDaily (June 11, 2012) — If female butterflies are programmed to identify males of their species by the patterns of spots on their wings, how can new wing patterns evolve in males?

ScienceDaily (June 11, 2012) — Out of control competitive aggression could be a result of a lagging neurotransmitter called dopamine, say researchers presenting a study at the Society of Nuclear Medicine's 2012 Annual Meeting. During a computer game against a putative cheating adversary, participants who had a lower capacity to synthesize this neurotransmitter in the brain were more distracted from their basic motivation to earn money and were more likely to act out with aggression.