A Galaxy for Science and Research

A Galaxy for Science and ResearchNGC 134 is a barred spiral with its spiral arms loosely wrapped around a bright, bar-shaped central region. The red features lounging along its spiral arms are glowing clouds of hot gas in which stars are forming, so-called...

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Japanese robot not quite ready for prime time

No further comment...New Hitachi Robot Rolls Around, CrashesHitachi's new toddler-like robot rolled around and waved for reporters Wednesday, only to crash into a desk and demonstrate the challenge of turning automatons into everyday helpers.The red...

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The discovery of sirtuins, part 2

Unless you're a biologist who's already familiar with the ins and outs of research into sirtuin proteins, you might want to have a look (if you haven't already) at the previous note in this series, where I describe a lot of important background and provide...

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The discovery of sirtuins, part 1

There's a lot more to the story of sirtuin proteins beyond what I've barely touched on here and here. Perhaps the best way to proceed is to rewind the tape (now, there's a metaphor on it's way out if there ever was one) to the point where biologists...

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Sirtuin proteins

What's a sirtuin protein? Perhaps this will jog your memory. Not quite two months ago I wrote about resveratrol – the trace ingredient in red wine that may (or may not) have longevity-extending effects. See the article for plenty of details, but there...

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Failure of unique factorization

For previous posts in this series, see here.In this installment we're going to look at a detailed example and discuss some fine points of factorization of algebraic integers. This will be a bit long and pedantic. However, all the reasoning is elementary,...

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The religious right is wrong again

Here's a cheery follow-up of more news of the sort in this earlier post.Report: Abstinence Not Curbing Teen SexPrograms that focus exclusively on abstinence have not been shown to affect teenager sexual behavior, although they are eligible for tens of...

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Religion and war

People bitch a lot about violence featured in movies and TV, but ignore a worse problem – how the sort of real (not make-believe) violence known as war is often associated with religion.Now there may be a better theoretical understanding of how and why...

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Massive Star's Afterlife: A Supernova Seeds New Planets

Massive Star's Afterlife: A Supernova Seeds New PlanetsA spectacular new image shows how complex a star's afterlife can be. By studying the details of this image made from a long observation by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers can better...

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When The Going Gets Tough, Maybe You Should Quit

This caught my eye, because of the connection with "stress", as discussed here and here:When The Going Gets Tough, Maybe You Should QuitAre there times when it is better to simply give up? Psychologists have been exploring this question, and more specifically...

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Readings: Cosmology and astrophysics, 4 November 2007

#editor {color: #00b000}The text following each item is quoted material, except for editorial comments, which are in color.FSU physicist shining a light on mysterious 'dark matter'"Recent scientific breakthroughs have shown that most of the matter in...

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