The Large Hadron Collider, the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, just cannot catch a break. First, a coolant leak destroyed some of the magnets that guide the energy beam. Then LHC officials postponed the restart of the machine to add additional safety features. Now, a bird dropping a piece of bread on a section of [...]

New evidence from Chandra suggests that the neutron star at the center of the Cas A supernova remnant has an ultra-thin carbon atmosphere.
Evidence for a thin veil of carbon has been found on the neutron star in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant. This discovery, made with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, resolves a ten-year mystery surrounding [...]

Twilight, a Thoroughbred horse from Cornell University.
An international team of researchers has decoded the genome of the domestic horse Equus caballus, revealing a genome structure with remarkable similarities to humans and more than one million genetic differences across a variety of horse breeds. In addition to shedding light on a key part of the mammalian [...]

This figure represents four cells, four purified CD34+ (the CD34+ cell population comprises true hematopoetic stem cell) from patient P1.
A strategy that combines gene therapy with blood stem cell therapy may be a useful tool for treating a fatal brain disease, French researchers have found.

Japan’s ageing population and low birth rate are fuelling fears of a population slump over the coming years.
 

C. elegans.
If worms are any indication, all the sugar in your diet could spell much more than obesity and type 2 diabetes. Researchers reporting in the November issue of Cell Metabolism, a Cell Press publication, say it might also be taking years off your life.

This representative-color figure shows the very-high-energy gamma-ray emission observed by VERITAS coming from the Cigar Galaxy, also known as Messier 82.
Nearly 100 years ago, scientists detected the first signs of cosmic rays — subatomic particles (mostly protons) that zip through space at nearly the speed of light. The most energetic cosmic rays hit with the [...]

Fermi’s Large Area Telescope (LAT) shows that an intense star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud named 30 Doradus is also a source of diffuse gamma rays.
Nearby galaxies undergoing a furious pace of star formation also emit lots of gamma rays, say astronomers using NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Two so-called “starburst” galaxies, plus a [...]

NSA Headquarters
There’s an interesting article in the current New York Review of books (predictably, a book review) detailing the history of the National Security Agency, that shadowy power-behind-the-power to which we surrender much of our privacy. That in itself is interesting, but I found the introduction a bit shocking: the NSA is constructing a datacenter [...]

A new generation of microcapsules, shown above, promise to deliver “chemicals on demand” for a wide range of uses, including medicine and personal care.
Scientists in California are reporting development of a new generation of the microcapsules used in carbon-free copy paper, in which capsules burst and release ink with pressure from a pen. The new [...]

Don’t you think a lot more people need to be aware of this?
Kevin Poulsen at Threat Level has a great item up about the growing menace of “money mules.” The term refers to bank customers who’ve been conned into unwittingly laundering cash that hackers have stolen from business bank accounts. The con and the funny [...]

The acoustic hyperlens is fashioned from 36 brass fins arranged in the shape of a hand-held fan.
Ultrasound and underwater sonar devices could “see” a big improvement, thanks to development of the world’s first acoustic hyperlens. Created by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), the acoustic hyperlens provides an [...]

For Jessica Gwozdz, a professional photographer and mother of two, Flickr was a blessing. It allowed her to share photos of her children, Grace and Henry, with distant, tech-averse relatives for whom a username and password would have been too great an obstacle. It even allowed potential clients to freely browse her gallery.
Then a friend [...]

For many, the harsh, bright glare of fluorescent street lights or office blocks which remain lit overnight has led to sleepless nights and subsequent bad moods.  But now psychologists from Ohio State University in the US, say that being unable to escape to the dark can affect personality, a person’s health and could lead to [...]

Bring non perishable food or toiletries to ALL DaVinci Institute events
Bare shelves at FISH of Broomfield are startling longtime volunteers.   Donations to the food bank are falling short of what is needed, while the demand keeps rising.  Help us support Broomfield’s FISH Food Bank by bringing non-perishables or toiletries to the Colorado Inventor Showcase on [...]

Last year, procrastinators were rewarded when they finally got around to booking flights for holiday travel. Back then, airlines were not prepared for the sharp falloff in travel and offered last-minute deals to fill up empty planes.  This year? Dilly-dallying, even waiting just a few days, could carry a steep price. Fares, though still lower [...]

Sheri West lost her home in Cleveland last year and had to sleep in her car
The first night after she surrendered her house to foreclosure, Sheri West endured the darkness in her Hyundai sedan. She parked in her old driveway, with her flower-print dresses and hats piled in boxes on the back seat, and three cherished [...]

A drawing of a pig and a biohazard sign mark the door of a lab where samples are tested for the H1N1 swine flu virus
The new H1N1 flu is “strikingly different” from seasonal influenza, killing much younger people than ordinary flu and often killing them very fast, World Health Organization officials said on Friday.   A [...]

Couple relationships are both more complex and vital than ever
In Today’s Economy More People are Traveling via the Internet than by Cars and Planes. Fortunately the Internet is Opening New Opportunities for Couples to Get a Picture of Their Relationship on the Web that Cuts Through Historic Therapy Approaches. ThriveSphere is the First in a [...]

The US airlines that created the largest, most redonkulous and abusive fees this year lost the most money last quarter. Airlines with low or no fees lost the least.
Accountants have rigged the system. They create a stream to track the ancillary revenue from fees and they look like heroes when they can report they earned [...]

Pictured in 2008, a banded iron formation about 2.5 billion years old near Soudan Underground Mine State Park in Minnesota shows alternating layers of silica-rich (red) and iron-rich (gray) minerals.
The strikingly banded rocks scattered across the upper Midwest and elsewhere throughout the world are actually ambassadors from the past, offering clues to the environment of [...]

Plant megafossils from Cerrejon coal mine in Colombia look much like modern rainforest plants.
Smithsonian researchers working in Colombia’s Cerrejón coal mine have unearthed the first megafossil evidence of a neotropical rainforest. Titanoboa, the world’s biggest snake, lived in this forest 58 million years ago at temperatures 3-5 C warmer than in rainforests today, indicating that [...]

Will the Dead Sea cease to exist as we know it?

The country of Jordan has decided to refill the shrinking Dead Sea with salt water despite concerns from environmentalists about the threat to its unique eco-system.
Water levels in the lowest and saltiest body of water on the planet are falling by more than four feet a [...]

For years, the country’s makeshift network of payday lenders and check cashers has operated with little competition or federal regulation.  But as the financial crisis sparks a new wave of consumer protections, lawmakers and the private sector alike are training their sights on an industry that caters to the most vulnerable of populations: the estimated [...]

Making a vaccine against seasonal influenza is a constant catch-up game. Scientists must predict which of the constantly mutating virus strains will be most virulent six months in the future, the amount of time it takes to manufacture the vaccine. The system has worked well enough for the regular flu. But when new, virulent strains [...]