The Fermi collaboration released yesterday a paper describing their measurement of the electron and positron flux of cosmic rays. Simultaneously, a second paper was published by the HESS collaboration on the very same topic. Together, these two important new articles provide the means for a significant advancement in our understanding of the spectrum of electrons and positrons from nearby sources.

It is especially meaningful to consider the two results together because the two instruments are as different as salt grains and tequila. Let me see where to start:

Engineering A Biological Pulse Generator

I've got my issues with synthetic biology. Either synthetic biologists do something trivial dressed up in elaborate engineering language, or they achieve something impressive and complex the old fashioned way (the way molecular biologists have been doing it for decades) - genetic engineering through trial and error, with very little principles-based engineering involved.

What I want to see is a result that falls somewhere in between these two extremes: genetic engineering that's non-trivial, but not so complex that it's impossible to use simulation and the rudimentary quantitative design principles that are useful in biology.

WASHINGTON, May 5 /PRNewswire/ --

- Brazilian Industry wants lower carbon emissions of its biofuels to be recognized

The Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA) welcomed today's White House announcement that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will finally publish proposed rules to implement the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). UNICA confirmed that it would submit formal, detailed comments to the EPA in coming weeks.

MADRID, May 5 /PRNewswire/ --

The Brattle Group, a global economic consulting firm, announced today that it has expanded its international presence with the establishment of a new office in Madrid, Spain. The Madrid office will be led by Dr David Robinson, a principal of Brattle and an expert in competition, regulation and corporate strategy in energy and other regulated industries.

While I was napping, Jupiter became a 2nd sun. Although it was observed in January by STEREO, we forgot to tell people. Or perhaps we were hiding the truth. Also, it was so well covered on YouTube that we didn't think we had to bother with a press release.

And thus occurred the most benign conspiracy in the history of NASA.

See, usually NASA is accused of hiding evidence of aliens, moon landing hoaxes, flat Earths, and other things Too Dangerous For People To Know. But when Jupiter was seen igniting as a second sun, the response was... upbeat.

CHICAGO, May 5 /PRNewswire/ --

- Major release of column-oriented, MPP DBMS features dozens of enhancements driven by fastest growing customer base in analytic data management

Vertica announced a major release of the Vertica Analytic Database at the TDWI Conference with new performance, analytic and security features designed to make it the analytic data management workhorse of modern data centers.

PORTLAND, Oregon, May 5 /PRNewswire/ --

- Over 80 speakers connected in perfect harmony

LONDON, May 5 /PRNewswire/ --

Initiatives taken by European governments and healthcare authorities to install infection surveillance systems have aimed at improving efficiency levels and reducing expenditures. However, the lack of basic level automation is proving to be a major challenge.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081117/FSLOGO)

SEATTLE, May 5 /PRNewswire/ --

- Growth of Intelligent Energy Management and Smart Grid Technology

ORLANDO, Florida, Wireless Enterprise Symposium 2009, May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Bayalink Solutions Corp., a leading innovator in smartphone application virtualization and a member of the BlackBerry(R) Alliance Program, announces today the general availability of Bayalink Liberty(TM) v1.7. Liberty, a virtualization solution for BlackBerry(R) smartphones from Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq:RIMM) (TSX:RIM), is a combination of sophisticated software and standard hardware technologies that provide the user with a virtualized presentation of select BlackBerry smartphone applications on larger display devices such as laptops and workstations.

Continuing aggressively down its product roadmap, Liberty v1.7 brings many new exciting features and enhancements including: