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Do the Largest Structures in the Universe Contradict Current Theory?

Casey Kazan
The Daily Galaxy
Thu, 23 Jun 2011 14:24 UTC
Coma Cluster
© David Martinez-Delgado, Antonio Marin-Franch and Antonio AparicioThe central region of the Coma cluster of galaxies. The photo was obtained using the Wide Field Camera at the INT telescope in the Observatorio Astrofísico del Roque de los Muchachos in La Palma (Spain).
"Just as a fish may be barely aware of the medium in which it lives and swims, so the microstructure of empty space could be far too complex for unaided human brains."

Sir Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal, physicist, Cambridge University
Our known Hubble length universe contains hundreds of millions of galaxies that have clumped together, forming super clusters and a series of massive walls of galaxies separated by vast voids of empty space.

Great Wall: The most vast structure ever is a collection of superclusters a billion light years away extending for 5% the length of the entire observable universe. It is theorized that such structures as the Great Wall form along and follow web-like strings of dark matter that dictates the structure of the Universe on the grandest of scales. Dark matter gravitationally attracts baryonic matter, and it is this normal matter that astronomers see forming long, thin walls of super-galactic clusters.

If it took God one week to make the Earth, going by mass it would take him two quintillion years to build this thing -- far longer than science says the universe has existed, and it's kind of fun to have those two the other way around for a change. Though He could always omnipotently cheat and say "Let there be a Sloan Great Wall."
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Cool News: Dinos May Have Been Warm-Blooded

Jennifer Welsh
LiveScience
Thu, 23 Jun 2011 13:00 UTC
Sauropod
© Illustrated by Russell Hawley, Tate Geological MuseumThis is a Jurassic sauropod.

The long-necked, lumbering Brachiosaurus that wandered the Earth150 million years ago ran a body temperature cooler than scientists had thought. The beasts most likely had special cooling mechanisms or behaviors to keep their temperatures down, a new study suggests.

These plant-eating dinosaurs, called sauropods - the largest animals ever to walk the Earth - probably had temperatures more like humans today, from around 96 degrees Fahrenheit to 100.8 F (roughly 35 to 38 degrees Celsius).

"Birds evolved from dinosaurs. We know modern birds are warm-blooded but we don't know at what point that evolved," said study researcher Rob Eagle of Caltech University. "This was the first quantitative measure of the body temperature of a dinosaur." (Warm-blooded mammals try to maintain their bodies at a constant temperature, whereas cold-blooded creatures take on the temperature of their surroundings.)
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Blackbox

A single mutant gene is responsible for 30% of all mysterious pain?

Alasdair Wilkins
io9.com
Thu, 23 Jun 2011 10:16 UTC
Image
© Unknown
In the United States alone, 20 million people suffer from peripheral neuropathy, a condition that involves nerve degeneration and sometimes extreme pain, often without any explanation. Now we've found the culprit for this mysterious pain...and it's all one gene's fault.

Specifically, it's the gene SCNA9, which is involved in the sensory nerve fibers and produces a protein sodium channel known as Nav1.7. Yale researchers, working with colleagues in the Netherlands, found that this particular gene is responsible for the horrifically named "Man on Fire Syndrome", a rare disorder marked by pain so severe that it's like...well, I think you can probably guess what it's like.

What's more, when the researchers examined 28 patients with peripheral neuropathy that could not otherwise be explained, 30% of the patients showed mutations in the SCNA9. These mutations created hyperactive nerve cells, which in turn ultimately caused the nerve fibers to degenerate, resulting in the severe - and until now unexplained - pain.
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Blackbox

Did Mars have an ancient ocean? Remarkable images show teardrop-shaped islands which could have once been deep underwater


DailyMail.co.uk
Thu, 23 Jun 2011 09:39 UTC
Mounds of earth that have been found on the surface of Mars may once have been covered by sprawling lakes, scientist have claimed.

The incredible photographs showing valleys and channels were taken from the Mars Odyssey spacecraft which arrived at Mars in 2001.
Image
© Lorena MoscardelliComet shape: Researchers found similarities between the Mars landforms, pictured, and streaky seafloor mounds off the coast of Trinidad suggesting there was once water on Mars

Experts believe that the teardrop-shaped islands on the red planet could have formed deep underwater millions of years ago.

The breakthrough could add to evidence that cast oceans that supported life were once present on the planet.

'Based on this analogy, I am humbly suggesting that teardrop-shaped islands on Mars formed underwater in a relatively deep ocean,' said geologist Lorena Moscardelli of the University of Texas, Austin, lead author of a paper in the July Geology.
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Sherlock

Astronomers Have Discovered a "Bridge" of Dark Matter Between Galaxies


Scienceray
Mon, 17 Jan 2011 07:26 UTC
Image
© A ZitrinA line of 14 galaxies seems to be strung along a filament of dark matter. This image, reconstructed from observations from the 40-inch Wise Observatory telescope in Israel, shows the relative positions of the galaxies, which lie about 2 million light years away. Blue regions are where the most stars are forming
Astronomers have discovered a "bridge" of dark matter, a length of about 1.5 million light-years, joining more than a dozen galaxies.

It is believed that galaxies in the universe separated by blank spaces that are not quite empty, but filled with strands of dark matter, forming a network. Dark matter can not directly observe the modern instruments because of the fact that it does not emit electromagnetic radiation of sufficient intensity for observation. But the judge it can be indirectly by the gravitational effect on objects.

Israeli astronomers have observed 14 dwarf galaxies are located almost on the same line length of about 1.5 million light years away. They found that after a billion years of inactivity, some 30 million years ago, they again began the process of star formation, and simultaneously in all the galaxies. "This is a very strange thing. Normally you can not expect that in galaxies, unrelated to each other, will begin at the same time the processes of birth of stars, "- says co-author Noah Borsch from Tel Aviv University.
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Satellite

Amateur astronomer photographs top secret spy satellites

Dennis Bodzash
Examiner.com
Wed, 22 Jun 2011 04:12 UTC
Image
© U.S. Air ForceThe x37-b space plane is one of Legault's favorite targets
As long as there have been governments, there have been secret projects. With the influx of humans into space, the room for government black projects has grown significantly and, until recently, governments from all over the world have been able to consider space a safe zone from where they were free to hide things from the prying eyes of the populace.

Ever since humans have been flying and/or launching things into space, there have been opportunities to see space vehicles in flight thanks to the sunlight reflected off of their metallic exteriors. From dark skies far away from the city, it is possible to see some satellites as small as a refrigerator should the conditions allow. Needless to say, with space becoming ever more crowded, satellite watching has become a favorite past time for some astronomers such as the observation of natural objects was in decades past.

Come 2011, thanks to advances in technology, secret government satellites are frequently becoming objects of examination, too.
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Star

Galaxies Are Either "Awake" or "Asleep," Find Astronomers


TruthDive
Wed, 22 Jun 2011 10:02 UTC
Astronomers have discovered that galaxies in the distant universe behave in one of two ways - they are either awake or asleep, actively forming stars or are not forming any new stars at all.

Scientists have known for several years that galaxies in the nearby universe seem to fall into one of these two states. But a new survey of the distant universe shows that even very young galaxies as far away as 12 billion light-years are either awake or asleep as well, meaning galaxies have behaved this way for more than 85 percent of the history of the universe.

"The fact that we see such young galaxies in the distant universe that have already shut off is remarkable," said Kate Whitaker, a Yaleniversity graduate student and lead author of the paper.

The researchers also found that there are many more active galaxies than passive ones, which agrees with the current thinking that galaxies start out actively forming stars before eventually shutting down.

"We don't see many galaxies in the in-between state," said Pieter van Dokkum, a Yale astronomer and another author of the paper. "This discovery shows how quickly galaxies go from one state to the other, from actively forming stars to shutting off."
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Info

Could Brain Scans ID Potential Criminals?

Marianne English
Discovery News
Wed, 22 Jun 2011 11:41 UTC
CT Brain Scan
© iStockPhotoA close-up of a CT brain scan.
The warning signs may seem subtle at first -- a child unable to empathize with others; another seems to fear nothing, not even the consequences of violence.

With time, researchers say, these descriptions might reflect a growing association between criminality and antisocial behavior.

But most recently, determining who might become a danger to society may be as easy as performing a brain scan, according to neurocriminology, a scientific discipline that uses neuroscience to predict and potentially reduce crime.

Along these lines, is it realistic to use brain scans to pinpoint which individuals are more at risk for criminal behavior before they commit crimes?

For some researchers, the idea is plausible, with the field reviving the nature versus nurture debate, as highlighted by Josh Fischman in a Chronicle of Higher Education article that profiles the work of University of Pennsylvania researcher Adrian Raine.

Raine's work, which draws from neuroscience and the legal system, focuses on differences in the minds of criminals and non-criminals. Over the years, he's established evidence for a link between the brain and criminal behavior.

By working with murderers, rapists and pedophiles, he's helped confirm that two brain structures -- the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex -- are smaller and less active in individuals with antisocial and criminal tendencies. Both areas are thought to give rise to complex behaviors shaped by emotion and fear.
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Better Earth

Philippines: 7 New Species of Mice Discovered on Remote Mountain

Remy Melina
Live Science
Tue, 21 Jun 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© Velizar Simeonovski, The Field MuseumThis color drawing shows Apomys brownorum, one of the new species from Mt. Tapulao, Zambales, on the Phillipine island Luzon.
Seven new forest mouse species have come out of hiding on Luzon, the largest island of the Philippines, researchers announced Monday (June 21).

The discovery of the new species, which reside only on a small part of the island, has increased the number of Luzon's native mammal species, excluding bats, to 49.

Observations of each mouse's morphology as well as genetics suggest the seven newbies are part of a new subgenus called Megapomys, which is part of the genus Apomys. These mice are relatively large, weighing less than a half pound (65-110 grams) and sporting tails that are as long as, or slightly shorter, than the length of the animal's body and head.

Two of the newly found species live on Mount Tapulao in the Zambales Mountains, two live on Mount Banahaw, an active volcano in the Philippines, while another two species reside in the Mingan mountains of the Aurora Province and another species in the Sierra Madre mountain range of northeastern Luzon.
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Brainy Parrots Can Think Like 4-Year-Olds

Stephanie Pappas
LiveScience
Tue, 21 Jun 2011 18:01 UTC
Parrot
© Sandra MikolaschA new study, published June 21 in the journal Royal Society Biological Sciences, finds that parrots can use logical reasoning to find food hidden in one of two cups.
Parrots are capable of logical leaps, according to a new study in which a gray parrot named Awisa used reasoning to figure out where a bit of food was hidden.

The task is one that kids as young as 4 could figure out, but the only other animals that have been shown to use this type of reasoning are great apes. That makes gray parrots the first non-primates to demonstrate such logical smarts, said study researcher Sandra Mikolasch, a doctoral candidate at the University of Vienna.

"We now know that a gray parrot is able to logically exclude a wrong possibility and instead choose the right one in order to get a reward, which is known as 'inference by exclusion,'" Mikolasch wrote in an email to LiveScience.
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