Recent work at Edinburgh University tried to quantify how many intelligent civilisations might be out there.

BBC: Galaxy has 'billions of Earths'

Much of her recent work at Stanford University has debunked stereotypes about how older people are uniformly slow, cranky and mentally impaired.

FORBES: Rethinking Old Age

In a recent demonstration, Microsoft executives showed how the object-recognition feature could work for Harrah's Entertainment Inc.

WSJ: The Shape of Computers to Come?

Barsh, who also is coauthor of How Remarkable Women Lead: A Breakthrough Model for Work and Life, told a recent gathering of women sponsored by the National Center for Research on Women to be themselves and view their distinct leadership qualities as strengths.

FORBES: Women Leadership Styles

This work is quite advanced because feasibility studies in recent years have already considered how the ATV itself could be adapted into a crew vehicle.

BBC: Europe and US agree details for Orion astronaut spacecraft

Yet even as Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov hailed their joint strategy as evidence of enhanced U.S.-Russian cooperation, it was unclear how their plan might work toward ending a war that has become even more dangerous in recent months with accusations the Assad regime has used chemical weapons, Israeli airstrikes on weapons convoys and American threats to begin arming the rebels.

NPR: US, Russia Seek To Revive Peace Plan For Syria

Given how relatively smoothly recent tests played out, "maybe we have set an example that things just work, " Mr. Musk said in a recent interview.

WSJ: SpaceX's Pioneering Flight Plans