CANDLEPOWER: Aeronautics and astronautics professor Brian Cantwell thinks he may have found a safer, cheaper rocket fuel: paraffin, aka candle wax. The hybrid liquid-solid fuel, previously considered too weak for such uses, recently shot a 10-foot rocket 16,000 feet into the air over the Nevada desert. Paraffin fuels could be used commercially within three years.

More bacteria, please: Medical Center researchers have discovered that a genetically engineered strain of lactobacillus—bacteria naturally found in the vagina—may help protect women against HIV infection. They added the gene for CD4, a protein that takes the virus out of commission, to lactobacillus, which repels HIV. The discovery could lead to creation of a suppository that women could use regularly as a preventive measure.