Officials at the NASA-funded Institute of Advanced Concepts, commonly known as NIAC, were told Friday by NASA that the agency will likely shut down at the end of August. There has been no written confirmation so far, says operations manager Dale Little. Budget cutbacks are the likely culprit. The institute receives about $4 million a year, of which about 75 percent goes directly into research.

One of the more recently funded projects comes from Wendy Boss and Amy Grunden of North Carolina State University, who are looking into ways of growing plants in the extreme climates of other planets. Plants are necessary for human survival, since they purify air and water and provide food and building material. But few plants on Earth would withstand the cosmic radiation or extreme temperatures of other planets. Their project would breed plants to endure such conditions.