mothernaturenetwork: Physicists react to Higg boson newsWhile some researchers see the discovery as a good sign in the search, others are still waiting for conclusive proof of the so-called God particle.
6th Mar 2012✧08:00274 notes
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laboratoryequipment: Spider Brain Too Large for HeadThe brains of tiny spiders are so large that they fill their body cavities and overflow into their legs, STRI researchers report. As part of ongoing research to understand how miniaturization affects brain size and behavior, researchers measured the central nervous systems of nine species of spiders, from rainforest giants to spiders smaller than the head of a pin. As the spiders get smaller, their brains get proportionally bigger, filling up more and more of their body cavities.Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Spider-Brain-Too-Large-for-Head-121311.aspx
15th Jan 2012✧04:00235 notes
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cwnl: Life May Exist Within A Super Massive Black Hole Despite being considered the most destructive force in space and absolutely uninhabitable, the conditions for life exist inside supermassive black holes, a Russian cosmologist has theorised. Going out on a scientific limb somewhat, Vyacheslav Dokuchaev has even suggested that if life did exist inside the SBH, it would have evolved to become the most advanced civilisation in the galaxy. Supermassive black holes are such powerful gravitational forces that they suck in everything around them, including light, and nothing that crosses the black hole’s ‘event horizon’ is ever seen again. But now Dokuchaev, of Moscow’s Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, says existing evidence combined with new research throws up intriguing possibilities for certain types of black holes. Inside a charged, rotating black hole there are regions where photons can survive in stable periodic orbits. Dokuchaev specialises in studying those orbits and their dynamics. He speculates, in a paper published in Cornell University’s online journal arXiv, that if there are stable orbits for photons, there is no reason why there could not be stable orbits for larger objects, such as planets. The problem is that these stable orbits would only exist once you have crossed the threshold of the event horizon, where time and space flow into one another. The event horizon, at the lip of the black hole, is known as the point of no return. However, beyond the event horizon is another domain, known as the Cauchy horizon, where time and space return to stable states. It is inside the Cauchy horizon that life could exist, Dokuchaev argues in a paper published in Cornell University’s online journal arXiv, However, the type of life that could exist in those conditions - where they would be subject to massive fluctuating tidal forces - would have evolved beyond ours. The life that could exist there would likely be a civilisation ranked as Type III on the Kardashev Scale. There are three levels to the scale with one being the lowest and three the highest. Humanity is still looking to attain Level 1 status; mastery of its own planet. ‘Interiors of the supermassive black holes may be inhabited by advanced civilisations… invisible from the outside,’ he says. Though that is a spine-tingling thought, Dokuchaev’s proposition can only ever remain theoretical. Because nothing can ever escape from a black hole due to its enormous gravitational pull, we will never know if it is true.
16th Dec 2011✧04:241,530 notes
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8bitfuture: Moon mining company to establish lunar base. Naveen Jain, and his company Moon Express, Inc., have announced plans to start mining the moon for precious metals. The mining base could start being established within two years. The moon is estimated to contain “20 times more titanium and platinum than anywhere on Earth,” says Tibi Pulu of ZME Science. Plus, it has something Earth doesn’t: helium 3, a rare isotope that’s “nonexistent on our planet, that many feel could be the future of energy on Earth and in space.” “The moon has never been explored from an entrepreneurial perspective,” says Jain. Getting to the moon would be the hardest part. After that, it would be easy to get mined materials back to Earth using a mirror-like “solar sail,” which would be pushed through space by the energy in sunlight bouncing off of it. It’s so feasible that Jain believes Moon Express could start mining operations as soon as 2013. ”It’s rocket science,” he says, “but it’s well understood rocket science.”
1st Dec 2011✧08:21277 notes
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