... as depressing as that may be to hear. Some friends recently described their December trip to India, the first time they've visited in years. India's economy is on fire, unleashing some tremendous pent-up economic demand. What was striking, my friends related, was how strongly India's economic development is geared toward the future, towards not only catching up with wealthier, more developed nations, but also towards anticipating and meeting economic challenges that loom in the future. This is in stark contrast to the US, which seems, at best, focused on defending the status quo.
Who interviewed who? There's
Scopes Monkey Choir-- the podcast interviewing me. And there's
365 Days of Astronomy-- the podcast where I interview them. Welcome to an irrational approach to "music in a rational universe".
You may recognize the famous Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky, whose best known work is “Pictures at an Exhibition”. But the pictures that follow are from a totally different exhibition, that of the
Association for Science Education Annual Conference 2011, held at the University of Reading from 5
th to 8
th January.
A cave inside some remote mountains of Armenia contain what is being called the oldest winery yet discovered, dating back to around 4,100 B.C., 1,000 years earlier than previous finds.
The discovery was made in the same
mysterious Armenian cave complex where ancient leather shoe was found last summer.
This is the oldest complete wine production facility ever found, including grape seeds, withered grape vines, remains of pressed grapes, a rudimentary wine press, a clay vat apparently used for fermentation, wine-soaked potsherds, and even a cup and drinking bowl.
The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has detected beams of antimatter launched by thunderstorms, which act like enormous particle accelerators and can emit gamma-ray flashes called TGFs - and also high-energy electrons and positrons. TGFs are produced inside thunderstorms and shown to be associated with lightning. It is estimated that about 500 such flashes occur daily worldwide, but most go undetected.
Scientists now think that most TGFs produce particle beams and antimatter.
