Cosmic particle accelerators may be more efficient than previously thought, according to a discovery which has revealed the initial stages of acceleration for the first time.

In space, large magnetic fields guide cosmic rays across the Universe at almost the speed of light, but they don't start them moving in the first place.  And you need some way to begin the acceleration process. The Large Hadron Collider at CERN uses a series of small accelerators to get its particles up to speed before injecting them into the main 27 km-circumference ring for further acceleration. 

It's been a while since my last "guess the plot" posting. The simple explanation is that I did not happen to run into any fancy graph in the last month or so. Now, today I have one for you to guess, but I must add that I believe it is rather easy to understand what it represents. Less obvious is to completely understand the math behind it, and the implications of the construction.

Bethesda Softworks' "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" has enjoyed an enthusiastic reception by gamers across the globe. After shipping seven million units of Skyrim for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, Skyrim's launch units are expected to generate more than $450 million in global retail sales. 

A new compound has been shown to reduce Body Mass Index (BMI) and abdominal circumference in obese rhesus monkeys, and imaging revealed a substantial decrease in body fat. In contrast to current ‘drugs’ for obesity that control appetite or absorption of dietary fat, this experimental drug binds to a protein on fat-supporting blood vessels and, once there, triggers cell death.

   

Rhesus monkey (or Macaca mulatta)

(Source: Wikimedia Commons, user Einar Fredriksen)

   

Precognition (from the Latin præ-,“before,” + cognitio, “acquiring knowledge”), is usually filed under esoteric pseudoscience. There are scientific articles on precognition, but pointing this out often results in the rare admission that scientific journals’ peer review can be flawed badly, so badly that complete nonsense gets all the way through the long process. The latter is very true but seldom admitted. All this is a cultural phenomenon, a question of belonging; naïve scientism wants to lynch you for mentioning clairvoyance but discussing time travel is fine, go figure.

Ray Hyman, a noted critic (!) of anything paranormal, remarked:

THOUSAND OAKS, California, November 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

VocalWall LTD has released a tool to post private vocal messages on Facebook and other social networks. Traditionally, text messaging has been the sole form of private communication. 

You know them you hate them, but no one creates fun research that matches confirmation bias more than BeautifulPeople.com, and they are at it again.  Their latest findings - from online dating site users, of course - exposes an ugly truth of online dating: Women lie more than men, and Americans are bigger liars than the Brits.

 Women lie about their looks and men lie about their jobs in the battle to find a partner through Internet dating, according to a survey of 1,000 single adults commissioned by BeautifulPeople.com. 

Elsevier announced new features for its online research tool BrainNavigator, adding new content and functionality to give researchers additional tools to accelerate their research. 

BrainNavigator is an online, interactive, 3D software tool for the application of brain atlases and maps images of brain anatomy, helping neuroscience researchers save time and improve the quality of their daily research by helping locate the position of structures within the brain, making visualization and communication about scientific findings about the brain easier.