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Enlarge ImageBigger fleas have littler fleas. And Mimiviruses are infected with smaller Sputnik viruses.Credit: Courtesy of Bernard La Scola/URMIT Little more than protein capsules chock-full of genetic material, viruses barely rank among the living. Yet like people, at least one virus can catch a virus--the viral equivalent of coming down with the flu. This "flu" virus impairs the host virus's ability to grow and reproduce, a research team studying the largest known viruses reports. Viruses are tiny biological hijackers that cause diseases that include the common cold, the flu, chickenpox, and AIDS. They infect animals, plants, and microorganisms and...

Fifty years ago this month, President Eisenhower and Sputnik were in the news -- and so were the marital travails of an Air Force pilot named David Steeves. The 23-year-old lieutenant -- once a national hero -- was now under a cloud of innuendo and suspicion stirred up by the nation's news media. Decades before media abuse became a hotly debated topic, Lt. Steeves was a victim of it, suffering a public humiliation he did not deserve. The Air Force, for its part, may have contributed to this guilt-by-innuendo. But ultimately it was the mainstream media that put the pilot's...

Recall the embarrassment Hillary Clinton suffered when she tried to explain she'd been named after Sir Edmund Hillary after he'd climbed Mount Everest -- only to have it pointed out that she had been five years old at that time? Well, she still seems a little confused about her birth date. Here's an interesting passage in today's debate: Hillary: We've got to enlist the American people the way we did in a previous generation for the Apollo program. As a little girl, I remember being thrilled about that, and feeling there was something I could do. [Shrugs] My fifth-grade teacher...

MOSCOW - Just a month after the Soviet Union stunned the world by putting the first artificial satellite into orbit, it boasted a new victory — a much bigger satellite carrying a mongrel dog called Laika. The mission, 50 years ago Saturday, ended sadly for Laika but helped pave the way for human flight. As with other episodes of the Soviet space program, Laika's mission was hidden under a veil of secrecy, and only after the collapse of the Soviet Union could the participants tell the real story behind it. The satellite that carried Laika into orbit was built in...

WASHINGTON -- Should the world's most-used search engine be more of a Yankee Google Dandy? Google Inc. occasionally features light-hearted doodles on its colorful home-page logo to commemorate special occasions. But now they are drawing criticism from conservatives for not being more patriotic. The Mountain View, Calif., company bathes its logo in stars and stripes every Independence Day, but last week's decision to honor the 50th anniversary of the Sputnik launch -- the second "g" in Google was replaced with a drawing of the Soviet satellite -- is being blasted by some conservatives. Not only did Google honor an achievement...

Rare are the times when a community, a nation, a world can say without hyperbole, "The future starts today." But that was the wondrous development 50 years ago last Thursday when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first satellite to go beyond Earth's atmosphere and orbit the planet. Sputnik is the first world event I remember. In Miss Kempter's 2nd-grade class, I realized this was a big deal when she took time from our usual lessons to sketch a picture of Sputnik on the blackboard. A basketball-shaped object with spikes coming out its sides was what everyone was discussing on...

WASHINGTON (AP) - With a series of small beeps from a spiky globe 50 years ago Thursday, the world shrank and humanity's view of Earth and the cosmos expanded. Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, was launched by the Soviets and circled the globe Oct. 4, 1957. The Space Age was born. And what followed were changes to everyday life that people now take for granted. What we see on television, how we communicate with each other, and how we pay for what we buy have all changed with the birth of satellites. Communications satellites helped bring wars and celebrations from...

Sergei Khrushchev is used to having a seat on the front row of history. Not only because his father, Nikita, was a premier of the Soviet Union, but also because he worked as an engineer at the forefront of Russia's space programme. As a young man, he was at his father's side on many of his official visits around the Soviet Union and abroad, including the historic visit to the US in 1959. On 4 October 1957, Sergei was in Kiev, Ukraine, where his father was visiting on military business. What started out as a routine engagement for the...

When Sputnik took off 50 years ago, the world gazed at the heavens in awe and apprehension, watching what seemed like the unveiling of a sustained Soviet effort to conquer space and score a stunning Cold War triumph. And that winking light that crowds around the globe gathered to watch in the night sky? Not Sputnik at all, as it turns out, but just the second stage of its booster rocket, according to Boris Chertok, one of the founders of the Soviet space program. But 50 years later, it emerges that the momentous launch was far from being part of...

Secrets of 1957 Sputnik launch revealed By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer 3 minutes ago   MOSCOW - When Sputnik took off 50 years ago, the world gazed at the heavens in awe and apprehension, watching what seemed like the unveiling of a sustained Soviet effort to conquer space and score a stunning Cold War triumph. But 50 years later, it emerges that the momentous launch was far from being part of a well-planned strategy to demonstrate communist superiority over the West. Instead, the first artificial satellite in space was a spur-of-the-moment gamble driven by the dream of one...

Russian space experts are wondering whether the United States used an anti-satellite weapon last month to kill a small Russian research satellite, the Novosti news agency reported Wednesday.

Today marks the 49th anniversary of the beginning of the Space Age.On 4 October 1957, the USSR launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite of Earth, beginning mankind's reach for the stars.

In... 1970, a Washington gossip columnist found herself seated at a dinner party next to rocket engineer Wernher von Braun. "One of the most fascinating men in the world has just moved to town," she gushed to her readers afterward. "The rocket genius is a brilliant conversationalist, extremely handsome and socially charming." It might seem odd to judge the mastermind of the Apollo program's Saturn V launch vehicle -- and, earlier, the German V-2 -- by his savoir faire. Yet Dr. von Braun's gift for talk and salesmanship, together with his technical skill and managerial prowess, were indispensable to his...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel...