NASA has spent $200 million dollars to test and develop a new cockpit for its shuttle. The "glass cockpit" has three monochromatic displays and nine liquid crystal computer screens. It will cost $9 million to install the new cockpit in each shuttle. Atlantis is the first shuttle to receive this upgrade. NASA expects to keep using the shuttles until the year 2020.

The Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory has created a new "super heavy" element. Element number 118 was created by bombarding a lead target with a beam of high-energy krypton ions. After only a few milliseconds the element decayed into element 116. The new element has not yet been named.

NASA says that engineers at its Marshall space Flight Center are building "hyper drives" similar to ones used in Star Trek. The hyper drive works by smashing two or more light atoms together, this fuses them into a heavier atom and releases a huge amount of energy. A spokesman for the lab compared the efficiency of a fusion hyper drive to that of a car getting 7000 miles to the gallon.

Fiber optics are now being used to take radiation readings in hard to reach places. The fiber optic neutron and gamma ray sensor was developed by Pacific Northwest national Laboratory and may also be used to cancer and brain tumor treatment.

Scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory have developed a engine that has no moving parts. The engine works by using externally applied heat to create acoustic waves in helium. the resulting pressure causes a resonator to vibrate at 80 Hz. the sound is then converted to electricity by a microphone-like device. the prototype is as efficient as a car engine.

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