Saturday - July 14, 2007You can help classify galaxies for scientific researchAn online project has begun to classify over a
million galaxies in an effort to determine if there is a special alignment of
spiral galaxies with an unexpected alignment of spots in the cosmic background
radiation observed in 2005. The public is invited to participate in the
classification of galaxies. If you would like to help, go to GalaxyZoo.org.
Monday - May 28, 2007Genesis (pseudo-science) museum opens in KentuckyA "creationist" museum opens today in Petersburg,
Kentucky. It is based on the absurd premise that
Genesis
is literally true and the earth only 6,000 thousand years old. Scientists know
for a fact that the earth is billions of years old.
Wednesday - November 22, 2006Home Fusion ReactorCheck out this video of a hobbyist's home fusion
reactor: Fusor Demo Run. This claims to be a video of a
test run in plasma mode only.
Wednesday - October 18, 2006Astronomical observatories on Mauna Kea were damaged by Sunday's earthquakeSunday's 6.7 magnitude earthquake and its
aftershocks shut down the large research telescopes atop Mauna Kea and, at the
very least, caused some damage or disruption to their control
systems.
Tuesday - September 12, 200644th known Mersenne prime number found by the GIMPS projectThe Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS)
project announced the discovery on Sept. 4 of the 44th known Mersenne prime. It
is also the largest known prime of any kind:
232,582,657-1.
Tuesday - September 05, 2006Possible discovery of the 44th known Mersenne PrimeGeorge Woltman announced yesterday that a
computer participating in the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) has
reported finding the 44th known Mersenne Prime. More details will be
forthcoming when the discovery has been verified.
Saturday - September 02, 2006Scientists protest the new definition of planetMore than 300 planetary scientists and
astronomers signed a petition stating that they do not agree with the
International Astronomical Union's new definition of "planet" and that they will
not use it.
Saturday - April 29, 2006Stardust @ HomeStardust@home is a distributed science project to
identify interstellar dust particles in the aerogel returned by the Stardust
spacecraft following its rendezvous with Comet Wild 2.
Wednesday - January 04, 200643rd known Mersenne prime number found by the GIMPS projectJust before Christmas, the Great Internet
Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) project announced the discovery of the
43rd known Mersenne prime. It is also the largest known prime of any kind:
230,402,457-1.
Wednesday - November 09, 2005Dover, Pa, school board experiences evolution by voter selectionVoters in Dover, Pa, outsted eight members of the
nine member school board that wants to require high school freshmen to hear
about "intelligent design" in their biology class. The ninth member of the
school board was not up for reelection.
Tuesday - October 11, 2005GrayBot (a.k.a. KAT-5) had an impressive performance in the 2005 Grand ChallengeOne of the most interesting teams among the five
whose autonomous robotic vehicles finished DARPA's 2005 Grand Challenge was the
Gray Team. Unlike the leading entries from Stanford and Carnegie Mellon,
GrayBot was not built by a high-profile team from a big-name university with a
long history of research in robotics. GrayBot was put together in about seven
months by The Gray Insurance Company with some help from students in Metairie,
LA. Katrina disrupted their efforts for about a week.
Sunday - October 09, 2005Stanford Racing Team won DARPA's 2005 Grand ChallengeStanford's autonomous robotic Diesel-powered
Volkswagen Touareg R5 won DARPA's 2005 Grand Challenge by traversing a 131.6
mile course through the Mojave desert in 6 hours, 53 minutes, 58
seconds.
Wednesday - September 28, 2005Scientists say fetuses do not feel painAccording to
New
Scientist, "Fetuses are unlikely to be able to
feel pain until the last stage [30 weeks] of pregnancy," according to a recent
U.S. study.
Monday - July 04, 2005NASA's Deep Impact mission successfully impacted Comet Tempel 1NASA TV is broadcasting live coverage of the progress of NASA's Deep
Impact mission to comet Tempel 1.
Wednesday - June 22, 2005Planetary Society's Cosmos 1 Solar Sail Spacecraft is not in its intended orbitReuters reported that the Planetary Society's Cosmos 1
solar sail spacecraft "failed to reach its planned orbit after the Russian
rocket carrying it shut down seconds after launch."
Tuesday - May 10, 2005Mars Rover Opportunity is stuck in a sand duneAccording to NASA, the rover Opportunity got
bogged down in a sand dune on April 26 and hasn't been asked to turn its wheels
since, while NASA engineers are trying to figure out how to get it out the
sand.
Thursday - April 21, 2005Proof of four color theorem provedNew
Scientist reported that a 1976 proof of the famous four
color theorem that involved a complicated computer program has itself been
proved correct by translating the proof into a language where the steps of the
proof can be checked by "logic-checking software".
Sunday - March 06, 2005Hubble Space Telescope may get an extra year of lifeNew Scientist reported that NASA programmers have figured out
how to stabilize the Hubble Space Telescope with only two gyros, which could
give the HST an extra year of life.
Saturday - March 05, 2005ESA's SMART-1 probe may prove the U.S. Apollo missions landed on the moonSpace.com reported that the European Space Agency's
SMART-1 probe currently in orbit around the Moon has been photographing the
Apollo landing sites and "may put to rest conspiratorial thoughts that U.S.
astronauts didn't go the distance and scuff up the lunar
landscape."
Saturday - February 26, 2005 |