Two studies shed additional light on a murky question: How did the cosmic fog that enveloped the universe in its early days dissipate?
Recently, one of the four 8.2-metre telescopes that make up the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope captured the brief but brilliant light of a distant explosion, a gamma-ray burst. The light from the burst passed through its host galaxy and another nearby galaxy before reaching Earth, providing Sandra Savaglio of the Max-Planck Institute for…
What do we do about death? How do we live with the fact of our mortality? Many (obviously) look to religion for answers, but some have a hard time accepting the life-after-death claims of their own religion. The dilemma is not uncommon: Although 80-90% of Americans believe in God, some 25-50% do not believe in…
Imagine being able to use electricity to power your car – even if it’s not an electric vehicle. Researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have for the first time demonstrated a method for converting carbon dioxide into liquid fuel isobutanol using electricity. Today, electrical energy generated by various methods…
Want to study the Talmud with thousands of other Orthodox Jews? There’s an app for that. 21st century Internet technology makes it easier than ever for thousands of people worldwide to participate in Daf Yomi, a 7.5-year program to study the Torah’s rabbinical commentary. To mark Siyum HaShas, the end of the 12th Daf Yomi…
In an effort to better understand how life started on Earth, researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are cooking up icy concoctions of organisms (carbon-bearing molecules) then zapping them with lasers. The JPL crew’s experiments also provide the first direct look at the organic chemistry that takes place in the chilly regions of our solar…
The European Union will spend about 700 million euros ($900 million) to build the world’s most powerful lasers, technology that could destroy nuclear waste and provide new cancer treatments. The Extreme Light Infrastructure project has obtained funding for two lasers to be built in the Czech Republic and Romania, Shirin Wheeler, spokeswoman for the European…