A team of astronomers from Europe and the US studied the "Einstein Cross", a famous cosmic mirage. This cross-shaped configuration consists of four images of a single very distant source. The multiple images are a result of gravitational lensing by a foreground galaxy, an effect that was predicted by Albert Einstein as a consequence of his theory of general relativity. The light source in the Einstein Cross is a quasar approximately ten billion light-years away, whereas the foreground lensing galaxy is ten times closer. The light from the quasar is bent in its path and magnified by the gravitational field of the lensing galaxy.
The best flame retardant for your Christmas tree is still plain old water.
Worse, researchers have determined that some flame retardants not only don't work on cut Christmas trees, they actually sped up the drying process and made trees more flammable.
Drs. Gary Chastagner, professor of plant pathology at Washington State University's Puyallup Research Center, and Eric Hinesley, professor of horticulture at North Carolina State University, tested two flame retardants on Douglas-fir and Fraser fir, two of the favorite Christmas tree species in the United States.
There are hurdles to clear before malaria elimination can be achieved. A supplement published in Malaria Journal features a series of articles reviewing the many aspects of the research agenda for global malaria elimination.
Astronomy&Astrophysics is publishing spectroscopic observations with NASA's space-based Far-Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) of the white dwarf KPD 0005+5106. The team of German and American astronomers who present these observations show that this white dwarf is among the hottest stars known so far, with a temperature of 200,000 K at its surface. It is so hot that its photosphere exhibits emission lines in the ultraviolet spectrum, a phenomenon that has never been seen before. These emission features stem from extremely ionized calcium (nine-fold ionized, i.e., CaX), which is the highest ionization stage of a chemical element ever discovered in a photospheric stellar spectrum.
Recently News Account have published an item
The Meaning Of Milton 400 Years Later. This has led me to some thoughts.
It was only when I was into my forties that I got around to reading Paradise Lost. To start with, there are some bits that really stick in my scientific mind. Take this bit where Satan gets ejected from Heaven:
Him the Almighty Power
hurled headlong flaming from th' eternal sky
with hideous ruin and combustion down
to bottomless perdition, there to dwell
in adamantine chains and penal fire,
who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms.
Last weekend I visited the St. Louis Zoo to witness their first ever Penguin Walk.
A new paper in The Astrophysical Journal suggests that turbulence plays a critical role in creating ripe conditions for the birth of planets, a challenge to the prevailing theory of planet formation, gravitational instability.
Using three-dimensional simulations of the dust and gas that orbits young stars, the study claims that turbulence is a significant obstacle to gravitational instability, which scientists have used since the 1970s to explain the early stage of planet formation.
One of the moons in our solar system that scientists think has the potential to harbor life may have a far more dynamic ocean than previously thought. If
Europa is tilted on its axis even slightly as it orbits the giant planet Jupiter, then Jupiter's gravitational pull could be creating powerful waves in Europa's ocean, according to Robert Tyler, an oceanographer with the University of Washington's Applied Physics Laboratory and author of a letter on the subject in the Dec. 11
Nature. As those waves dissipate, they would give off significant heat energy.
More than one in five women has a secret Santa Claus fantasy, according to dating website BeNaughty.com. As you can guess by their URL, their subscribers probably were more inclined to fantasy about numerous holiday icons, so guard your turkeys at Thanksgiving.
Research by the site reveals that women find the chubby, bearded gift-giver very sexy indeed. More than 1,000 women were asked whether they fancied Santa Claus in the poll. 1 in 10 even wear a Santa costume themselves in the bedroom, though a beard and breasts probably says more about the men they are with than it does the women themselves.
Research by dating site FreeDating.co.uk found that 36% of women would end a relationship over an 'inadequate' Christmas gift. This was particularly the case when the present was the latest in a series of disappointing let-downs within the relationship.
Examples of gifts which were deemed inadequate included cooking utensils, cleaning products, and a sticky tape dispenser. Generally speaking, it seems common sense to think that devices meant to cook for a significant other or clean the house would be a bad idea - but that's why science studies are needed.
