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Space

Submission + - Andromeda caught devouring another galaxy (cosmosmagazine.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Astronomers have for the first time captured a spectacular merger between our nearest large galactic neighbours, the galaxies Andromeda and Triangulum.

Cannibalism of smaller galaxies has long been thought to be the mechanism by which large galaxies grow. The research, published in the British journal Nature, confirms this and surprisingly also caught Andromeda in the process of dismembering its near neighbour, the large spiral galaxy Triangulum.

Comment Re:I can recall (Score 2, Interesting) 168

pilots in the 60 who spoke quietly about these. Of course, scientists said that no such thing exists and as such, most pilots kept real quiet about it. Only at wild 60's parties would I hear some of these guys talking about it.

Maybe an even larger, as yet undiscovered type of these ""gigantic jets" can be used to explain the images taken from the shuttle, Mir space station etc. orbiting earth that clearly show something (an object) leaving the earth's atmosphere, and which have for a long time - at least in particular circles - been used to 'prove' the existence of UFOs on earth. If the jets in the article can reach 80km, could it not be possible that some as yet undiscovered phenomena could reach even higher, with enough power to break through the ionosphere into outer space?

Books

Submission + - Is the fantasy genre chronically misunderstood? (keepingthedoor.com)

daria42 writes: The fantasy genre is chronically marginalised by its immature image by book critics and readers alike, fantasy author Janny Wurts has argued in a recent podcast interview. In the interview, Wurts slammed the idea that fantasy books, with their central swords, magic and dragon archetypes, are fiction for children or immature adults.
Power

Submission + - Big Bang Could Be Recreated Inside A Metamaterial (technologyreview.com)

KentuckyFC writes: "Metamaterials are substances with a permittivity and permeability that has been manipulated in a way that allows fine control over the behaviour of light. They have famously been used to create an invisibility cloak that hide objects from view (see, for example, here or here). Now one physicist in the US has calculated how they could be used for a much more profound demonstration: to reproduce the behaviour of light in various kinds of spacetimes, in particular a (2+2) spacetime (which means having two dimensions of space and two of time). His method is to show that there is formal mathematical analogy between the way metamaterials and spacetimes effect light. He goes on to show how a phase transition in a (2+2) spacetime leads to the creation of a (2+1) spacetime filled with photons, an event that is analogous to the Big Bang."
Operating Systems

Submission + - Ubuntu second best OS for small business

mjuhannus writes: TechWorld.se compares eight operating system (in swedish) for their suitability for small companies. While Mac OS X wins the comparison with 86 points, Ubuntu comes in second with 85. Both Windows XP and 7 comes in third with 82 points. TechWorld compares the OSes in five categories: Installation and configuration, Hardware Support, Adminstration, Performance and Program Compatibility. Ubuntu is said to be the best choice especially for companies with tight IT budgets. Other OSes in comparison were SUSE Enterprise Linux Desktop (79 points), Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (75), Windows Vista (72) and OpenSolaris (68).
Education

Go For a Masters, Or Not? 834

mx12 writes "I'm currently an undergrad in computer engineering and have been thinking about getting my masters. I have a year left in school. Most of my professors seem to think that getting a masters is a great idea, but I wanted to hear from people out in the working world. Is a masters in computer engineering better than two years of experience at a company?"
Biotech

Submission + - The 300 Million Year Old Brain

Pickens writes: "Paleontologists recently discovered the world's oldest brain nestled within a 300-million-year-old fish fossil of one of the extinct relatives of modern ratfishes, also known as "ghost sharks" or chimaeras. These chimaera relatives, called iniopterygians, represented bizarre beasts that sported massive skulls with huge eye sockets, shark-like teeth in rows, tails with clubs, huge pectoral fins that were almost placed on their backs, and bone-like spikes or hooks tipping the fins. The brain shows details such as a large vision lobe and optic nerve stretching to the proper place on the braincase, which fits with the fish's large eye sockets. The ear canals of the extinct fish only exist on a horizontal plane so the fish could only detect side to side movements, and not up or down. "There is nothing like this known today; it is really bizarre," said John Maisey, paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. "But now that we know that brains might be preserved in such ancient fossils, we can start looking for others. We are limited in information about early vertebrate brains, and the evolution of the brain lies at the core of vertebrate history.""

Comment Re:Tresspassing no longer exists? (Score 1) 258

It doesn't seem to matter to Google whether or not you mark the property as private property. This is not the first time the Google maps van has entered property they had no right to. They have previously ignored clearly posted "No Trespassing" signs and entered private property: Google Maps Trespassing Again.

Trespassing does exist; it's just a matter of whether or not the property owner decides to enforce it or not - and Google saying that they provide opt-out functionality to removed pictures from Google Maps is no excuse for blatantly ignoring the "No Trespassing" signs in the first place. This is like saying I can get away with selling door-to-door even to households with "No Hawking" signs posted (which to be honest most door-to-door salespeople do anyway).

Comment Re:Flintstone (Score 1, Interesting) 215

So while this find is quite nice, it's by no means the best ever.

Considering where it was found, I don't think the researchers will be complaining. The interesting point to this story though is the fact that the "nearly intact" (FTA: "he appears to be about 80% complete") mammoth was found in L.A., which is hardly frozen Artic tundra.

Researchers from the George C. Page Museum at the La Brea tar pits have barely begun extracting the fossils from the sandy, tarry matrix of soil

If it was the composition of the soil in which the body was buried that preserved it for so long, then perhaps similar finds could be made in other non-tundra climes.

Comment Re:Price Tag? (Score 0) 263

As with any new technology, there's going to be a large cost involved with the development and research in the early stages.

Reading the article, it seems that the patient can only receive their original T-cells, but with enough experimentation and development, it may be possible to create a 'generic' T-cell that is close enough to natural T-cells to be accepted by anyone's body.

If this is achieved, then it's just a matter of mass producing the 'generic' T-cell. It might even be possible to create a 'generic' T-cell that causes a mutation in the CCR5 cell in existing T-cells to render those cells inactive, which means that only a small amount would be needed per person.

If we can advance the process this far, the only remaining problems would occur with patients or people being innoculated who have naturally occuring mutations or extreme differentations in their T-cells that prevent the developed T-cells from working properly. But by the time we reach this hurdle, it should be easier to develop the necessary T-cells for those people as required.

Just a thought.

Comment Re:This patent might be thrown out: (Score 0) 152

The new system, described in a patent filed by Nintendo Creative Director Shigeru Miyamoto on June 30, 2008, but made public today, looks to solve the issue of casual gamers losing interest in a game before they complete it, while still maintaining the interest of hardcore gamers..

I don't think this is "un-patent-worthy". A company is free to patent a new technology that they think will make them money, assuming it doesn't infringe on other patents. I do think that this is another way to keep casual (read: only on the weekends etc) gamers interested enough to keep buying games that they have no real interest in completing.

Maybe they should put more effort into making games that casual gamers won't lose interest in, rather than admitting by way of patent that a great deal of games on the market just aren't made well enough or with a sufficiently interesting storyline to keep gamers interested...

Comment Re:A first post should be more like this (Score 1, Interesting) 302

To Admins: Will somebody please block the IPs of the adolescent, racist, small-minded morons who insist on posting this type of message. I know that I could raise the level of posts to read in order to block these out myself, but I shouldn't have to. I don't mind the majority of trolls or flamebait, but this is getting ridiculous. And yes, I really that the purpose of these posts is to incite this type of response, but their are too many intolerant, ignorant people in the world now without pathetic idiots like this influencing others.

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