Scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the group that manages the Large Hadron Collider, announced that the first proton beams had already been injected in the massive particle accelerator, and that they had completed thousands of spins in its tunnels. The 27-kilometer-long facility saw the injection of a clockwise-circulating beam on Friday. CERN officials revealed that a stable beam was established at 10 PM local time last night, ZDNet reports.The CERN Twitter feed also states that an additional beam of protons, circulating anticlockwise, was introduced in the accelerator's tunnels later yesterday, and t... [read more >>] California's Death Valley is a fairly harsh place when it comes to deserts, with temperatures regularly reaching 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) during the day. At night, it gets so cold, that ice can form. In this rather inhospitable place, tourists and scientists have discovered one of the most unusual phenomenons they've ever seen, namely moving stones. Untouched by people's hands, the rocks appear to be actually gliding on the ultra-smooth surface of the desert, and experts have yet to fully explain this peculiar behavior. The thing about these stones is that they appear to be traveling in eerie, straight pa... [read more >>] The dual nature of light, as in the fact that it can act like both a particle and a wave, has had physicists puzzled since that was first discovered. Such a duality was bound to lead to some paradoxes, scientists hypothesized at the time, and now their predictions appear to be coming true. Scientists have recently discovered a paradox that makes no sense, but that occurs nonetheless. When they attempt to pass light through an already transparent, ultra-small layer of gold atoms that has received many holes priorly, less light goes through than it would through a layer without holes. Even kindergarten children will tell you that, if you pi... [read more >>] On October 9, NASA slammed its $79-million LCROSS space probe into the surface of the Moon, in a quest for discovering water-ice in the Cabeus Crater at the south pole. At the time, as the world watched this endeavor live, the impact crater and the ejection plume that the spent Centaurus rocket stage created as it impacted the lunar surface, just a few minutes before the space probe itself, were not that impressive, and many called the mission a failure. However, NASA officials refrained from making comments until the science results were in – and they are good. “Indeed, yes, we found water. And we didn't find just a litt... [read more >>] The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is undoubtedly the most ambitious science project ever undertaken by people. Its purpose is to look directly at the conditions that led to the formation of everything around us, and provide a firm confirmation for the Standard Model as well. But, other than the unfounded talk of black holes and other global calamities that may spring from the particle accelerator, physicists are beginning to wonder what will come next. Steven Weinberg believes, for example, that, if the Higgs boson is indeed discovered, then physics may come to a standstill. Weinberg is the physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 19... [read more >>] For a great many years, scientists have believed that the oceans on our planet were formed from water vapors emitted during volcanic eruptions that condensed and fell to the ground over millions of years. But a scientist now proposes that this might not have been the case. He argues that water is not something that our planet had when it was formed, and believes that the life chemical was brought here on comets coming in from the outer solar system. The expert adds that the region was filled with turbulences, caused by large planets launching meteorites and comets towards the Sun. French researcher Francis Albarede, the proponent of the n... [read more >>] The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is one of the American space agency's best observatories, especially suited to discovering gamma-ray bursts coming towards our planet from the distant Universe. However, in its first 14 months of operations, the machine was able to record some peculiar signals coming in from the Earth's atmosphere, which gave physicists something to puzzle over. The telescope discovered 17 gamma-ray flashes associated with lightning storms, occurring immediately before, during and just after the electrical discharge left the clouds, Wired reports. In addition to Fermi, the World Wide Lightning Location Network... [read more >>] The standard cosmological model holds that there is a type of matter known as dark matter permeating the Universe, which accounts for the massive discrepancies that exist between how much matter the Universe has, and the amount it should have, according to predictions. Astronomers hypothesized that dark matter should exist, comprising most of the unseen matter, and exerting its influence on normal matter through the force of gravity alone. Now, some experts propose a new approach to explaining the discrepancy – the Modified Theory of Newtonian Dynamics, or MOND, Space reports. Astronomical observations have shown over recent years tha... [read more >>] Top officials in the Russian Federation announced on Thursday that they gave their acceptance to a proposal stating that the country should pursue the development of a nuclear-powered spacecraft, which is currently set to fly as early as 2012. This would essentially leave the former Communist nation in charge of the nuclear space race, as the United States continue to lose their role as the dominating force in space today. According to Russian scientists, building the new spacecraft could cost as much as $600 million, Wired reports. “The idea [of nuclear-powered spaceflight] has bright prospects, and if Russia could stage a breakthro... [read more >>] In a recent poll, in which 10,000 people got the chance to have their say, the X-ray machine was voted as the most important innovation of the century. More than 50,000 votes were recorded in the Science Museum of London inquiry, which saw X-rays defeat things like penicillin and steam engine. All of the ten objects came from areas of research such as science, engineering, technology and medicine, and the goal of the poll was to promote Science to the masses, and make it more interesting, the BBC News reports. Further details on all the items are available at the SML.One of the main reasons why X-rays were considered to be so groundbre... [read more >>] | 
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