Space Shuttle Discovery Makes a New Launch Today

Today, the space shuttle Discovery was launched! I would never have realized this had happened unless I had happened to read the headline on CNN. com today. I believe the simple fact that I had heard nothing about the space launch says a lot about the prominence of space travel in our society right now.

Discovery was launched this evening for the international space station. According to the article from CNN, Discovery is bringing supplies to the space station. On this past Wednesday, a hydrogen leak had been detected on the ship, which delayed the initial launch of the shuttle. All repairs are going well so far.

Discovery is also bringing the supplies needed to expand the crew on the space station, which NASA is planning to double from 3 crew members to 6. Supplies are also being brought to repair a machine on the station that converts urine into drinkable water. (WHAT! Who knew there was a machine that does that! Seems a bit unsanitary...)

According to another news article, the crew being sent to the space station are going to install more solar-energy equipment.

I remember that when I was younger, space launches and space travel, as well as other dealings with NASA, were highly publicized within my school and within the news. Why has universal knowledge of what is going on in space research declined so rapidly in recent time? It makes me sad that there are so many fantastic achievements and updates in the world of space travel and engineering, and that the nation is distracted from such accomplishments. 

Images found 

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10196685-76.html

and

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH.space/03/15/shuttle.launch/index.html

Divorce is Deadly?

A new study has shown that divorces can actually hurt a women's health. However, the study has shown that it only affects middle aged women, not men, and only women of that age group. Health concerns that have been linked to marital trouble include high blood pressure, excess belly fat, and other health risks that promote a woman's risk for heart attack, stroke, and diabetes.

In this study, a professor from the University of Utah professor took 276 couples and tried to discover whether the main cause for these health problems was depression directly caused by marital troubles. The research showed that middle age women are more likely to become depressed than other women. The only health effects that were found in the men of the couples were the depressive emotional conditions, which hadn't affected their physical health.

The study also did not prove that getting a divorce would allow a woman to escape the health risks of marital trouble, for divorces often cause further depressive symptoms.

This article discusses the symptoms of depression, which plagues over 14 million Americans today. The symptoms of high blood pressure, anxiety, and other moods were common results of the study done about marriages.

So what does this mean? Further studies will continue to research married couples and how marital trouble affects the mind and body. The question is: how can we make these studies more accurate and more applicable to our modern day society? Will we in the future have to take more aspects of marriage into consideration, or possibly incorporate same sex marriages?

And will this affect divorce rates in our modern day society? Science, once again, is coming closer and closer to controlling even the romance in our lives!

Image found: http://www.ktbotanicals.com/images/Depression.jpg

and

http://uscmediareligion.org/images/upload/Marriage.jpg