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Submission + - A Star Cluster Thrown Out Of Galaxy At Hypervelocity Discovered

Submitted by William Robinson
William Robinson writes: According to these reports, A globular cluster of several thousand stars, compressed into a space just a few dozen light years apart, is thrown out of galaxy M87. The cluster, named as HVGC-1, is traveling at a rate of 2 million miles per hour. The discovery was made by Nelson Caldwell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and his team while studying the space around the supergiant elliptical galaxy M87. Caldwell and colleagues think M87 might have two supermassive black holes at its center. The star cluster wandered too close to the pair, which picked off many of the cluster’s outer stars while the inner core remained intact. The black holes then acted like a slingshot, flinging the cluster away at a tremendous speed.

Submission + - Astronomers Discover Pair of Black Holes in Inactive Galaxy

Submitted by William Robinson
William Robinson writes: The Astronomers at XMM-Newton have detected a pair of supermassive black holes at the center of an inactive galaxy. Most massive galaxies in the Universe are thought to harbor at least one supermassive black hole at their center. And a pair of black holes is indication of strong possibility that the galaxies have merged. Finding black holes in quiescent galaxies is difficult because there are no gas clouds feeding the black holes, so the cores of these galaxies are truly dark. It can be only detected by this ‘tidal disruption event’,.

Submission + - NASA proposes "water world theory" for origin of life

Submitted by William Robinson
William Robinson writes: A new study from researchers at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has proposed the "water world" theory as the answer to our evolution, which describes how electrical energy naturally produced at the sea floor might have given rise to life. While the scientists had already proposed this hypothesis called "submarine alkaline hydrothermal emergence of life" the new report assembles decades of field, laboratory and theoretical research into a grand, unified picture.

Submission + - Organ regenerated inside a living animal for the first time (economist.com)

Submitted by ananyo
ananyo writes: Scientists at Edinburgh University have successfully persuaded an organ to regenerate inside an animal. As they report in the journal Development, they have treated, in mice, an organ called the thymus, which is a part of the immune system that runs down in old age. Instead of adding stem cells they have stimulated their animals’ thymuses to make more of a protein called FOXN1. This is a transcription factor (a molecular switch that activates genes).
The scientists knew from earlier experiments that FOXN1 is important for the embryonic development of the thymus, and speculated that it might also rejuvenate the organ in older animals. They bred a special strain of mice whose FOXN1 production could be stimulated specifically in the thymus by tamoxifen, a drug more familiar as a treatment for breast cancer.
In one-year-olds, stimulating FOXN1 production in the thymus caused it to become 2.7 times bigger within a month. In two-year-olds the increase was 2.6 times. Moreover, when the researchers studied the enlarged thymuses microscopically, and compared them with those from untreated control animals of the same ages, they found that the organs’ internal structures had reverted to their youthful nature.

Comment Re:I have enough accounts.... (Score 1) 164

That's nothing.

There is web site of Indian Railways. To book a ticket, they need your name, address, telephone number, blood group, blood sample, retina scan, tongue sample, sperm sample and name of your first born son, your great grandparents and names of all teachers who have taught you in past.

I said, no thank you.

Submission + - New black holes found in Andromeda

Submitted by William Robinson
William Robinson writes: Astronomers have discovered 26 new likely black holes in the neighboring Andromeda galaxy — the largest haul of black hole candidates ever found in a galaxy apart from our own. The central region of the Andromeda galaxy is chock-full of black holes, according to extensive observations with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. 26 new stellar-mass black hole candidates have been identified, adding to nine previously known and bringing the grand total to 35. Scientists believe it may be 'tip of the iceberg'

Comment Re:Google has done this already. (Score 2) 95

by William Robinson (#42934857) Attached to: Oxford Tests Self-Driving Cars

Once one company has done it all others should stop.

Well, not necessarily. There could be lot of interesting (read creative) ideas one could have missed. And indirectly, it creates a healthy compitition everybody benefits from.

If that was not the case, we would have had only one type of car, only one type of plane, only one type of phone..and the list may go on.

Comment Re:Dogs (Score 2) 48

by William Robinson (#42555253) Attached to: Device Sniffs Out Signs of Life After Disasters

I agree that dogs do great job. However trained dogs are expensive and they have a time limit.

Back on topic, I was involved in design electronics and algorithms of chemical detector useful for military/security forces. Right now I am involved in design of device that would detect certain diseases. We used nanomaterial and I believe it does great job. It provides great sensitivity and helps package everything in a small 3 inch box.

IANAC, could anybody explain me whether the technology used in the device "ion mobility spectrometry" is better?

Submission + - X-Ray Laser for creating supercharged particles (sciencedaily.com)

Submitted by William Robinson
William Robinson writes: Scientists have found way to use X-Ray Laser for creating supercharged particles. The specific tuning of the laser's properties can cause atoms and molecules to resonate. The resonance excites the atoms and causes them to shake off electrons at a rate that otherwise would require higher energies. This could be used to create highly charged plasma.
Politics

Submission + - Tech companies and politics (idgconnect.com)

Submitted by William Robinson
William Robinson writes: There are iteresting stories about which tech companies are supporting Obama and which tech companies are supporting Romney. According the article, Obama's biggest donators features the likes of Microsoft, Google, IBM and Comcast whereas the only tech name on Romney's list is EMC. The tech community are choosing Obama because they see him as man with a similar vision

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