Loris Z.com

The Mineral Moon.

Astronomers think many of the first generation of stars were this massive, and, therefore, this new supernova may provide a rare glimpse of how the first stars died. It is unprecedented, however, to find such a massive star and witness its death in the local Universe. The discovery of the supernova, known as SN 2006gy, provides evidence that the death of such massive stars is fundamentally different from theoretical predictions.

“Of all exploding stars ever observed, this was the king,” said Alex Filippenko, leader of the ground-based observations at the Lick Observatory in California and the Keck Observatory in Hawaii. “We were astonished to see how bright it got, and how long it lasted.”

Found HERE.

It starts here. And, checking the links that appear there, I end up here, reading this:

Biologists are still grappling with the implications of this new view of cell death — not passive extinguishment, like a candle flickering out when you cover it with a glass, but an active biochemical event triggered by “reperfusion,” the resumption of oxygen supply. The research takes them deep into the machinery of the cell, to the tiny membrane-enclosed structures known as mitochondria where cellular fuel is oxidized to provide energy. Mitochondria control the process known as apoptosis, the programmed death of abnormal cells that is the body’s primary defense against cancer. “It looks to us,” says Becker, “as if the cellular surveillance mechanism cannot tell the difference between a cancer cell and a cell being reperfused with oxygen. Something throws the switch that makes the cell die.”

I’m starting to think more and more seriously on what I say occasionally whith some beers in me: Medical science is fucked.

Via Wired:

…the team took a qubit A in superposition and a qubit B in either state zero or one. Next, they coupled the two qubits using a microwave focused on a third qubit, which entangled the other two. Nearly instantaneously, both qubits would be in superposition and the coupling would be turned off. Finally, the superposition for qubit A would remain — preserving its initial quantum state.

Again, from S.A.:

Morphine blocks a process called long-term potentiation (LTP), which strengthens the synapses (connections between neurons) to make the transfer of information between cells more efficient. Neuroscientists have identified this mechanism as a cellular process behind memory and learning.
In the current study, scientists focused on synapses between dopamine-containing neurons and those that contain GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid), an inhibitory chemical. “The ability to have LTP at these synapses is probably a natural mechanism to balance excitation and inhibition,” says senior study author Julie Kauer, “so the synapse won’t get crazily excited.”

From Scientific American:

The trick, according to the team, is making sure that the oscillation is asymmetric, like an inchworm’s crawl, with one motion taking longer than the other. Guéron says that a real object would have to vibrate one billion times per second to slow its fall by 1 percent. That will not help action heroes, but a molecule could do it if given the right asymmetry, he adds.

Interesting:

The team, from the IBM Almaden Research Lab and the University of Nevada, ran the simulation on a BlueGene L supercomputer that had 4096 processors, each one of which used 256MB of memory.

Using this machine the researchers created half a virtual mouse brain that had 8,000 neurons that had up to 6,300 synapses.

Happy Birthday, Hubble!

Now they need a “Superman”, right?

A new mineral matching its unique chemistry - as described in the film Superman Returns - has been identified in a mine in Serbia.

“I’m afraid it’s not green and it doesn’t glow either - although it will react to ultraviolet light by fluorescing a pinkish-orange,” he told BBC News.

Scientists call for public debate on possible roles:

Scientists have criticised a government report which advocated a debate on granting rights to super-intelligent robots in the future as “a distraction”. They say the public should instead be consulted over the use of robots by the military and police, as carers for the elderly and as sex toys.