In Hot Pursuit of Fusion (or Folly) from The New York Times Here in a dry California valley, outside a small town, a cathedral of light is to be dedicated on Friday. Like the cathedrals of antiquity, it is built on an unrivaled scale with unmatched technology, and it embodies a scientific doctrine that, if confirmed, might lift civilization to new heights. Full Article Success in Coping with Infinity Could Strengthen Case for Multiple Universes from ScienceNews Before ER, House and even Marcus Welby, a TV-doctor show called Ben Casey opened each week with a hand drawing symbols, as the voice of Sam Jaffe identified them one by one: "Man, Woman, Birth, Death … Infinity." Full Article Mars Robots May Have Destroyed Evidence of Life from NewScientist Have Mars landers been destroying signs of life? Instead of identifying chemicals that could point to life, NASA's robot explorers may have been toasting them by mistake. Full Article

Coming Soon: First Pictures of a Black Hole
from NewScientist
Like a giant pale blue eye, the Earth stares at the center of our galaxy. Through the glare and the fog it is trying to catch a glimpse of an indistinct something 30,000 light years away. Over there, within the sparkling starscape of the galaxy's core... no, not those giant suns or those colliding gas clouds; not the gamma-ray glow of annihilating antimatter. No, right there in the very center, inside that swirling nebula of doomed matter, could that be just a hint of a shadow? Full Article

US CO2 Goals 'To Be Compromised'
from BBC
US Energy Secretary Steven Chu says the US will not be able to cut greenhouse emissions as much as it should due to domestic political opposition. Prof Chu told BBC News he feared the world might be heading towards a tipping point on climate change. Full Article

NASA's GCN: Ensuring Supernovae Are Seen Around the Globe
from Ars Technica
The detection of gamma ray bursts, which are signs of the most energetic events in the universe, is primarily done by space-based observatories. NASA's GCN network sends news of these events to telescopes around the globe, allowing them to follow up at a variety of wavelengths, sometimes within a matter of minutes. Full Article

Building the World's Wimpiest Space Thruster—Harder Than It Sounds
from Discover Magazine
It takes huge blasts of rocket power to free spacecraft of Earth's gravity, but only a tiny nudge to correct a satellite's orbit, dodge space debris, or counter the slight but pernicious force of sunlight. Two new engines should make that job easier. Full Article