Black holes may not be so dangerous to stars after all. The discovery of a star named S0-102 may help reveal whether Albert Einstein was right in his fundamental prediction of how black holes warp space and time - it orbits the enormous black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy in a blazing 11.5 years.
Black holes, which form out of the collapse of matter, have such high density that nothing can escape their gravitational pull, not even light. They cannot be seen directly, but their influence on nearby stars is visible and provides a signature. Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that mass distorts space and time and therefore not only slows down the flow of time but also stretches or shrinks distances.
Serial killers and recidivist criminals of all kinds lack empathy. So do some people with poor social skills. A compassion-based meditation program called Cognitively-Based Compassion Training (CBCT) was recently used to try and improve the ability to read the facial expressions of others.
A skull fragment unearthed in Tanzania verifies that our ancient ancestors were eating meat at least 1,500,000 years ago and that can tell us something about the evolution of human physiology and brain development and why we wouldn't be where we are if there was a Prehistoric PETA.
The two-inch skull fragment was found at the famed Olduvai Gorge in northern Tanzania, a site that for decades has yielded numerous clues into the evolution of modern humans and is sometimes called `the cradle of mankind.'
The Greenland ice sheet has a tale to tell about ancient greenhouse gas emissions too. Researchers have determined how much methane originates from natural sources and how much is due to human activity, from Roman times to the present.
Methane is an underestimated greenhouse gas, 23X the impact of CO2 but not as long-lived, and like CO2 it has natural sources and also originates from human activities. The emissions from natural sources varies due to \climate variations; as an example, bacteria in wetlands release methane and less is emitted in dry cycles when wetlands shrink.
The Affordable Care Act controversy rages on. In this week's BMJ,
journalist Jeanne Lenzer says the basic assumption that US people don't have enough health care is misleading and in reality, Americans have too much - and that unnecessary care costs an estimated $800 billion per year.
The article arrives as an international conference named 'Preventing Overdiagnosis' was announced for September, 2013 in the United States, hosted by The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, in partnership with the BMJ, Consumer Reports and Bond University of Australia.
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