May 2010

The Future is Now?

Tags:

Local lizard populations have been vanishing at a rate closely linked to the maximum air temperature change in an area during the breeding season.

Whence Matter?

Tags:

An asymmetry between matter and antimatter which is much larger than what is predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics may have been discovered.

Did Phoenix lose a wing?

Tags:

As expected, the Mars Phoenix Lander fails to reestablish contact, and images taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter might show exactly why.

Clues to Missing Matter

Tags:

The Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton have detected a huge reservoir of interstellar gas apparently embedded in a large-scale structure known as the Sculptor Wall, some 400 million light years from Earth.

Artificial Life

Tags:

An entirely synthetic copy of a bacteria genome has been successfully used to recreate the bacteria.

A hole in space… no really, an actual hole!

Tags:

A dark region of space thought to be dark because of dust turns out to be really empty.

Overfishing gives toxic seaweeds an edge in their competition with corals

Tags:

Seaweed is not just taking advantage of the vacancies appearing due to the dying out of coral: some are actively waging chemical warfare.

IKAROS - Japan's Solar Sail

Tags:

Japan is set to launch the solar sail IKAROS on May 18th at the same time as a spacecraft to Venus.

Galaxy cluster at the edge of the Universe

Tags:

Astronomers have found the most distant galaxy cluster ever seen so far.

Antidepressants Not Effective for Some Types of Depression

Tags:

Antidepressants may not be effective in mild to moderate depression.