The ring around the mountain in this NASA photo depicts what is believed to be the edge of a glacier.

Scientific American reports that the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has detected what appear to be water ice glaciers near the surface of the mid-latitudes of Mars. Not only is it surprising to find so much water ice so close to the equator, but researchers are amazed by the massive size of the glaciers and how the ice appears to exist very close to the surface. The November 20 issue of Science details the results of an analysis of two Martian features by the MRO's shallow radar, or SHARAD. These features, which are representative of numerous mountains dotting the landscape, appear to be composed almost entirely of water ice.

Mars Phoenix Photo of Ice | How Do They Know It's Water Ice?

Spiders have returned to space! CNN has a video from NASA TV showing a spider on the International Space Station making its web. The activity of the spider is cool, though the CNN commentary is sort of inane (I recommend hitting 'mute'). Studying the effects of microgravity on how spiders build their webs is valuable for multiple reasons. It raises public interest in the space program and provides biological data, plus the study offers a glimpse into polymerization of a protein when gravity is changed. How does this affect the nature of a spider's web? Are the properties of the silk produced by the spider altered? If so, how is the silk produced in space different from silk the spider would make on Earth?

The spiders are one of two educational experiments designed by The University of Colorado-Boulder's BioServe Space Technologies that flew on Endeavour's mission to the ISS. The purpose of the spider experiment is to compare the web spinning and feeding of spiders in space with that of spiders on the ground. The other experiment is designed to chart the life cycle of butterflies in microgravity and to compare their development with that of their earthbound counterparts. Over a dozen Colorado middle schools will be monitoring the progress of the experiments through the videos, data, and images sent back from the ISS.

Spiders on Skylab 3 | Spiders on STS-107

Have you been hunkering for a Nobel Prize or wanting to create the invention of the 21st century, but aren't sure you're genius enough? Then you may want to take notes from New Scientist's article "How to Be a Genius". Apparently people who are highly accomplished, recognized geniuses didn't pop out of the womb that way (you suspected as much) and may not have even been especially talented. How did they become geniuses? Hard work. That's bad news if you're uber-smart yet lazy. That's great news for everyone else, since it means someone with a bit of skill and luck and a whole lot of effort can do amazing things. We're all a little bit good at something, right? Now go out there and show the world your true genius at it!

Careers in Chemistry | Nobel Prizes in Chemistry

Polymer balls are made using a variation on the slime recipe. They look like little jewels to me.