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The US has slashed funding for the International Linear Collider (ILC) by 75 % as the budget for 2008 has been finally agreed between the Republican Bush Administration and Democratic Congress. The new budget legislation, which US president George W Bush is expected to sign by 31 December, will see up to 200 scientists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) lose their jobs. Funding for the international ITER fusion experiment, which is about to be built in France, has also been cut.
As we kick off the year 2008, Comet Tuttle is putting on a nice show for backyard skywatchers. It had not been seen since 1994, but you'll have an excellent opportunity to pick it up with binoculars or small telescopes during the next two weeks.
Tuttle can even be glimpsed by sharp-eyed observers under pristine skies without any optical aids, for it is one of the brightest of the short-period comets, those that orbit the sun often enough to be seen again and again from Earth and identified as such.
Tuttle can even be glimpsed by sharp-eyed observers under pristine skies without any optical aids, for it is one of the brightest of the short-period comets, those that orbit the sun often enough to be seen again and again from Earth and identified as such.
A group of scientists in Princeton's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology has uncovered a new biological mechanism that could provide a clearer window into a cell's inner workings.
What's more, this mechanism could represent an "epigenetic" pathway -- a route that bypasses an organism's normal DNA genetic program -- for so-called Lamarckian evolution, enabling an organism to pass on to its offspring characteristics acquired during its lifetime to improve their chances for survival. Lamarckian evolution is the notion, for example, that the giraffe's long neck evolved by its continually stretching higher and higher in order to munch on the more plentiful top tree leaves and gain a better shot at surviving.
What's more, this mechanism could represent an "epigenetic" pathway -- a route that bypasses an organism's normal DNA genetic program -- for so-called Lamarckian evolution, enabling an organism to pass on to its offspring characteristics acquired during its lifetime to improve their chances for survival. Lamarckian evolution is the notion, for example, that the giraffe's long neck evolved by its continually stretching higher and higher in order to munch on the more plentiful top tree leaves and gain a better shot at surviving.
A ninety minute daytime nap helps speed up the process of long term memory consolidation, a recent study conducted by Prof. Avi Karni and Dr. Maria Korman of the Center for Brain and Behavior Research at the University of Haifa found. "We still don't know the exact mechanism of the memory process that occurs during sleep, but the results of this research suggest the possibility that it is possible to speed up memory consolidation, and in the future, we may be able to do it artificially," said Prof. Karni.
Astronomers have spotted small galaxies near the beginning of time that resemble ancestors of our own galactic home.
The tiny galaxies are about one-tenth to one-twentieth the size of the Milky Way and have 40 times fewer stars. Light from the ancient clusters was emitted about 2 billion years after the Big Bang, the theoretical beginning to the universe that occurred about 13.7 billion years ago. So the galaxies are seen as they existed in a very young universe.
The tiny galaxies are about one-tenth to one-twentieth the size of the Milky Way and have 40 times fewer stars. Light from the ancient clusters was emitted about 2 billion years after the Big Bang, the theoretical beginning to the universe that occurred about 13.7 billion years ago. So the galaxies are seen as they existed in a very young universe.
An explosive star within our galaxy is showing signs of an impending eruption, at least in a cosmic time frame, and has for quite some time. From 1838 to 1858, the star called Eta Carinae brightened to rival the light of Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, and then faded to a dim star. Since 1940 it has been brightening again, and scientists think Eta Carinae will detonate in 10,000 to 20,000 years.
Using the powerful one-two combo of NASA's Swift satellite and the Gemini Observatory, astronomers have detected a mysterious type of cosmic explosion farther back in time than ever before. The explosion, known as a short gamma-ray burst (GRB), took place 7.4 billion years ago, more than halfway back to the Big Bang.
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| ©NASA, ESA, and D. de Mello (Catholic University of America/GSFC) |
Mysterious "blue blobs" about 12 million light-years away are actually clusters of orphan stars that formed in an unlikely part of the universe, new images released today reveal.
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| ©USDA-ARS via PNAS |
| Switchgrass is farmed for ethanol production in Nebraska. The crop produces 540 percent more energy than it takes to grow and refine, a new study says. |
Ethanol made from a prairie grass shows promise as a viable fuel that could be much more environmentally friendly and energy-efficient than corn ethanol, a new study says.
Ethanol is often touted as a cleaner-burning gasoline alternative that lessens dependence on oil.
From July 16 through July 22, 1994, pieces of an object designated as Comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 collided with Jupiter. This is the first collision of two solar system bodies ever to be observed, and the effects of the comet impacts on Jupiter's atmosphere have been simply spectacular and beyond expectations. Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 consisted of at least 21 discernable fragments with diameters estimated at up to 2 kilometers.
Latest Images of Comet Shoemaker-Levy
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| ©NASA JPL |
Latest Images of Comet Shoemaker-Levy
