When scientists scan the universe for distant planets, one thing they’re looking for is whether a planet is orbiting in a location where water can be liquid. When NASA and other agencies send probes and orbiters to Mars, one of their overriding goals is to search for water. On Earth, where we find water, we find life. All this makes our lack of focus on Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons and a place where we know for sure that there is water, more than a little confusing.
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NASA Wants to Take a Closer Look at the Water on Jupiter’s Moon
The Trouble with Bottled Water
In the spring of 2007, the quietly simmering backlash against bottled water began to boil. Responding to well-organized pressure groups, first one, and then a dozen cities across the nation canceled their contracts for bottled-water delivery. Upscale restaurants struck fancy waters from their menus, and college students conducted taste tests intended to prove, once and for all, that most people can’t tell the difference between bottled water and tap.
Watching Water Run
It is the hot, dark heart of summer in this small town that I love. Fireworks have been going off sporadically for several nights, and the teenagers next door are playing water polo in the afternoons in the swimming pool their professor parents built for them this year.
How Can We Keep Track of Earth’s Invisible Water?
It’s no secret that Earth is a wet and wild place—from grade school onward, most people can readily cite the fact that water covers about 70 percent of the planet’s surface. And images taken from space show our home world as a “blue marble” awash in oceans, rivers and lakes.
This Robotic Insect Can Jump on Water
Robots seem to be able to do anything these days — from clearing clogged arteries to sniffing out disease in crops. Now robots can add jumping on water to their resume, Sid Perkins reports for Science. Scientists have designed a tiny robot that’s so light, it can bounce at the surface of a puddle.