Category: Science

Is our-type solar system a common one? Beer and his colleagues are now arguing that the alien systems might not have formed in the same way as our solar system. It is possible that the hot-Jupiter systems might have come about when the dusty discs around stars became unstable and suddenly fragmented, with the individual…

Matt Ridley gives some interesting insights into the human genome, and that of other mammals and plants. We have 25,000 genes (or recipes for protein molecules) which is the same as a mouse, just 6,000 more than a microscopic nematode worm and 15,000 fewer than a rice plant. However sophisticated our brains are, it is…

In need of some new desktop wallpaper? Pictures taken during the Apollo missions have recently been digitized and revamped, giving some spectacular images. Well worth at least an hour looking through.

Short answer: well yes, obviously. But this is yet another excellent article in Prospect. Walker goes into some detail here, and provides insight into some theories I never even knew existed. Read the whole thing, but I will give some good passages from it: Scientists on both sides agree in principle that cultural changes can…

The evidence continues to grow. It looks increasingly like there may have been very large amounts of liquid water on Mars over a very long period of time. And if there was, the possibility of life existing, now or before, increases dramatically.

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – Losing weight, eating more fruits and vegetables and exercising your brain and body sounds like a formula to prevent heart disease, but it is also a way to prevent Alzheimer’s, researchers said on Monday:

This one for the naysayers of global warming, I wonder what this new satellite will find? It should do some important science I imagine. With the launch of Aura, the first series of NASA’s Earth Observing System satellites is complete. The other satellites are Terra, which monitors land, and Aqua, which observes Earth’s water cycle.…

Stephen Hawking in a fascinating interview on Newsnight tonight. I hope its available online later, I want to watch it again. The story has appeared online here. Hawking has been backpedaling recently on the idea that nothing can escape the limitless gravitational pull of these collapsed, dark stars. He now claims that some information can…

I am speechless. Whoah.

A bit late posting this, but I was delighed that Cassini had successfully entered orbit around Saturn. It is amazing the accuracy with which it was achieved. I am looking forward to hundreds of thousands of new astronomy images to choose from for my desktop.