J.J. Abrams Takes Audience Suggestions For ‘Star Wars’ on Jimmy Kimmel Live
Gotta love Bill Shatner
Orbiting Frog
I'm Robert Simpson and I work at the Zooniverse, a world-leading Citizen Science platform. I am an astrophysicist and my research involves understanding how stars form. I also love the web! You can hear me on the Recycled Electrons podcast.
Connections
Angelina Jolie had a double mastectomy, in case you hadn’t heard. How dare she remove those ticking time bombs from her chest, amiright? Like, hasn’t she learned by now that her body is public domain and we all get to vote on what she does with it? Sheesh, how selfish can ya get.
A point well made
Timelapse of clouds at Observatorio del Teide, Tenerife
Saturn and the Moon, seen last night through the 50cm Mons telescope. Sorry for image quality: held my iPhone up to the eyepiece!
I appear to be standing on Mars (in Tenerife). Can’t find Curiosity anywhere…
Parts of Tenerife look a lot like sets from Star Trek. It’s a good thing.
John Oliver talks to gun lobbyist Philip ‘Gun Control Doesn’t Work’ Van Cleave. This was an incredible segment. His logic is shot to Hell.
I laughed myself silly watching this last night. Beware some crazy racism against… Australians?!
Check out this amazing new Hubble image of the Horsehead Nebula. This image has been released to celebrate Hubble’s 23rd year in orbit. It’s taken in the near-infrared and shows mind-blowing details and complexity in the structure of this famous astronomical object.
The Horsehead is located in Orion and is a favourite for astrophotographers around the world. Normally seen as a dark patch on a bright, diffuse cloud - this IR image shows the glowing dust that makes up the nebula and the detailed structures that ebb and flow within it.
Breathtaking!
This diagram compares the planets of the inner solar system to Kepler-62, a five-planet system announced today, which is about 1,200 light-years from Earth. Two planets in this system are not much bigger than Earth and orbit their star in the Goldilocks Zone, where it’s not too hot and not too cold for liquid water: but just right.
The Madagascar Periwinkle is now found in tropical regions around the world as an ornamental plant.
It contains more than 70 highly-toxic alkaloids to deter animals from eating it. In the 1950s two of these alkaloids (vincristine and vinblastine) were discovered to be amazing cancer-fighting medicines. They inhibit the growth of tumours very effectively.
Vinblastine has helped increase the survival rate of childhood leukaemia from 10% to 90%!
I learned this today visiting the Living Rainforest centre. The power of modern science to turn these natural compounds into life-saving drugs is truly humbling. It is also a reminder of the enormous important of biodiversity.
Panstarrs and M31 03-04-13 by astronomel on Flickr.
Astrophotography superstar Mel Gigg (pun intended) got a stunning shot of Comet Panstarrs as it swept by the Andromeda Galaxy.
Nasa plans asteroid rodeo to lasso 25ft space rock for research
Paul Harris in New York and agencies, guardian.co.ukScientists will use ‘baggie with a drawstring’ to capture space rock in plan due to be backed by $100m from Obama budget
Nasa is going on an asteroid rodeo. In plans that sound like science fiction but that are aimed at becoming science fact, th…
NASA are going to ‘lasso’ an asteroid and bring it back to Earth. Can’t wait to read more about how this will work.
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