New Scientist has published a report which deems the concept of a space elevator unsound. This adds another salvo to the eternal "Would It Work?" debate which has been raging through the science (not to mention the science fiction) community for years.
Many people have proposed a space elevator as a permanent, cost-effective alternative to using various forms of flight to reach space. In the typical scenario, a tether is attached to the planet (firmly, one would hope) at one end, and to a counterweight at the other end. The counterweight is a big object in geosynchronous orbit, which keeps it in a fixed position above the anchor pad.
A variety of different vehicles could then traverse the tether, ferrying passengers and materiel into space at a fraction of the cost of, say, a shuttle launch. Read more
Jupiter changes, so does the Spot. The Spot really is properly called "Great"; it is so far the largest known storm in our Solar System, with a diameter of 15,400 miles. In other words, just the area covered by the storm on Jupiter is almost twice the size of Earth (and about one-sixth of Jupiter’s diameter). We've been watching the spot long enough now that we can see it is definitely shrinking. What's more, as currents and weather patterns shift, we've witnessed, albeit at a very great distance, new storms and smaller spots appearing in Jupiter's images. 
