If you are reading this site, you already know "Battlestar Galactica" is the greatest science-fiction show of all time.  Yes, yes, "Farscape" was terrific and "Star Trek" set the standard but Battlestar Galactica as number one brooks no argument.   The only thing that could make it better is being able to play as part of a  Battlestar Galactica MMORPG universe.

Bigpoint has announced today the successful launch of the first phase of its Battlestar Galactica Online closed beta. The initial phase granted hand-selected players from Europe and the United States the opportunity to experience one of the most ambitious browser-games ever developed. 

Can plasma be beautiful?   Surely, anything can, but physicists are luckier than most because when they probe the mysteries of plasma, the fourth state of matter, they often discover phenomena of striking beauty. 

Plasmas support a large variety of waves, some familiar to all such as light and sound waves, but a great many exist nowhere else and one of the fundamental waves in magnetized plasma is the shear Alfvén wave, named after Nobel Prize winning scientist Hannes Alfvén, who predicted their existence.