I may be disclosing my age here, but does anyone remember the series The Six-Million Dollar Man? If not, here is a refresher for you (or a bit of information to fill you in on what you missed): NASA Astronaut Steve Austin (who was wonderfully portrayed by Lee Majors), was severely injured during a crash. He was ‘rebuilt’ in an operation costing a whopping $6 million (hence the name of the series). All in all, Austin received bionic legs, a left eye and a right arm.

These bionic implants substantially increased his ability to perform certain tasks: his limbs were as powerful as a bulldozer, his eye had infrared capabilities and a 20:1 zoom lens, he could also run up to 60 mph. He uses all of these enhanced abilities working as a Secret Agent for the Office of Scientific Intelligence. Well, Mr. Austin, there is a new Bionic Man in town, and he is a robot named Frank (short for Frankenstein). Yes, I am referring to this robot as a ‘he, him’ because, well, he does have a masculine name after all. read more

If you asked a scientist what the basic building block of life is, the answer would be water. Therefore, when NASA’s Curiosity Rover recently found evidence suggesting that the Red Planet (Mars) was not always completely dry, thoughts of previous life forms come to mind.

Evidence of Ancient Lakes

In 2012, the Curiosity Rover landed close to an area officially named Aeolis Mons: An area that is now referred to as Mount Sharp (named after Professor Robert P. Sharp, 1911-2004). Since landing in 2012, the rover has continued moving around the planet. In 2014, the rover reached the base of Mount Sharp, at which point scientists realized that the evidence the rover gathered may suggest that Martian lakes were full of life. While the Curiosity Rover had already found evidence suggesting that lakes existed on Mars’ older, lower-lying layers of rock, these more recent photos show evidence of desiccation cracks (ancient mud cracks). read more