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Signs of water have been found in the atmospheres of planets orbiting distant stars, which may mean our galaxy is teeming with life. Astronomers looked for water near 17 stars, all of which are thought to have planetary systems orbiting around them. They used powerful telescopes to search for microwaves that come from water in a planet’s atmosphere. “This result is astonishing if it’s true,” says astronomer Geoff Marcy.

One of the planetary systems orbits a star 50 light years away from Earth. It has three planets with masses up to four times the size of Jupiter. They are all gas giants like Jupiter, although it?s possible the solar system could also contain Earth-like planets that harbor life.
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The way humans alter the Earth’s surface may be a major cause of climate change. NASA scientists say the way land is used is probably just as important as greenhouse gas emissions, and changes in the surface of the land in the tropics may have a greater influence on climate than El Nino.
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One reason we’re not getting more information about what looks like a Cuban underwater city is that for Paul Weinzweig and his wife Paulina Zelitsky of Advanced Digital Communications (ADC), exploring it is only a sideline?the company has been hired to hunt for shipwrecks filled with gold and jewels, and to find oil and natural gas reserves. Images revealed by their underwater robot submarine include massive stones arranged in symmetrical squares and pyramid shapes. Smooth, white stones on the ocean floor 2,000 feet beneath the surface are laid out in a geometric pattern. These artifacts can be found over nearly eight square miles off Cuba’s western tip. “Nature couldn’t have built anything so symmetrical,” says Weinzweig. “This isn’t natural, but we don’t know what it is.”
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Israeli researchers think that ignoring trauma may be healthier than pouring out your heart to a psychiatrist (and they have a lot of stress over there, so they should know). “The findings of this study suggest that a repressive coping style may promote adjustment to traumatic stress, both in the short and longer term,” says Tel Aviv social worker Karni Ginzburg.

Ginzburg and colleagues studied 116 patients who were hospitalized for heart attacks and suffering anxiety about their brush with death. They compared them to 72 people who had not suffered heart attacks. He chose heart attack victims because, “The damage to the heart, with its symbolic meaning as the essence of the human being, may shatter the patient’s sense of wholeness and safety,” Ginzburg says.
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