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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recommended a ban on the use of indoor tanning beds in the United States for those below the age of 18 years. The recommendation has been made in an effort to cut the risk for skin cancer that arises due to indoor tanning practices. Medical researchers have been studying indoor tanning extensively over past decades.

Researchers through a recently conducted study have found that rise in temperature of lakes all of the world will trigger toxic algae outbreak which will be very harmful for marine ecosystem.

The study co-funded by NASA and the National Science Foundation suggested that increase in lake temperature is projected to increase alga blooms by almost 20%, and toxic algae bloom by 5%.

The warm lake water could also alter the balance of ecosystems and threaten the livelihood of people who depend on fish from the lakes.

The study published this week in Geophysical Research Letters said that the lakes are warming at a rate of 0.61 degrees Fahrenheit each decade.

American space agency NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) recently caught a stunning image of earth from the craft’s vantage point in orbit around the moon.

Noah Petro, Deputy Project Scientist for LRO at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland said in a statement that the latest image by LRO is really stunning. “The image of the Earth evokes the famous 'Blue Marble' image taken by Astronaut Harrison Schmitt during Apollo 17, 43 years ago, which also showed Africa prominently in the picture”, he said.

In the image earth can be seen rising from over the lunar horizon from the viewpoint of the spacecraft. The large tanned area in the image in the upper right is the Sahara Desert and just beyond is Saudi Arabia, said NASA officials.

American space agency NASA said in a recent statement that astronauts aboard the International space station (ISS) will be attempting an unplanned spacewalk to fix a railcar which is used by station’s robotic arm.

As per agency officials, NASA astronauts Scott Kelly and Tim Kopra will be going for the spacewalk outside the station to free the outpost’s Mobile transporter railcar, which suddenly stopped moving on Wednesday.

The surprise spacewalk might occur as early as Monday, said NASA. The problem of the railcar will be fixed before the arrival of unmanned Russian Progress cargo ship on December 23, it added.

SpaceX has planned to launch its most powerful rocket so far on this Saturday. The launch will take place between 8 pm and 9 pm ET. During previous launch by SpaceX in June, a faulty rig known as a strut, busted in mid-launch, causing the breakdown of one of the fuel tanks, setting off a chain reaction that devastated the rocket and its unmanned Dragon spacecraft.

SpaceX has brought some major and exciting upgrades to its rockets since then. The aerospace company, which is founded and run by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, is going to fly its upgraded Falcon 9 first time ever on this weekend.

According to a latest study, after less than 2 centuries, Darwin’s finches could be at risk of extinction. A study published in the Journal of Applied Ecology on December 18, the birds’ well being is threatened by parasitic flies, and that they have the potential to wipe them out within a few decades.

But, lead author of the study, Dale Clayton, University of Utah biology professor said that the news wasn’t all ‘doom and gloom’.

Clayton added that a ‘modest reduction in the prevalence of the fly’ via intervention of human beings would possibly lessen the extinction rate. On the other hand, he also mentioned that the birds may evolve a defense mechanism via natural selection, making the flies, mainly their larvae, less dangerous.