Ian Lipkin, a Columbia researcher who was an author on the Science paper, says his bee work could provide "a road map for addressing outbreaks of infectious disease" like SARS. Metagenomics could also open a window on the invisible microbes, still undiscovered, that live in the earth, air and sea.

FORBES: Can Genomics Save The Bees?

Compared with the sluggish air on Earth, the Martian atmosphere is in constant motion: between the surface and six feet above it, temperatures can vary by as much as sixty degrees.

NEWYORKER: The Martian Chroniclers

For instance, when you do combustion studies, flames on Earth burn in a teardrop fashion because the air comes in from underneath it and feeds the flame, but we can't do that here since the air doesn't know where up is, there's no convection.

WHITEHOUSE: President Obama's call to the International Space Station

How on earth can a oneworld Air Berlin do a strategic tie up with the leading carrier in a rival airline and keep its loyalty to oneworld?

CNN: Airlines of the gulf: Shaking up the skies