The Biggest Thing in the Universe
A team of astronomers using the Subaru and Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, have discovered the largest structure ever seen in space. The structure, which spans some 200 million light-years, is a three-dimensional filament of galaxies that contains 30-some enormous gas clouds—thought to be the precursors to massive galaxies. The structure is surprisingly dense, containing four times the number of galaxies expected in a space its size.
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has found what may be hydrocarbon lakes on the surface of Titan, one of Saturn's moons. Using its radar system, Cassini detected dark patches—indicating a smooth surface—dotting the landscape around Titan's north pole. The dark patches, which appeared in images taken on July 21, may be liquid methane or ethane lakes, which some scientists had speculated might exist on the moon.
China plans to launch a satellite filled with 2,000 seeds from a variety of crops into space, hoping the seeds produce better crops when they return to Earth. Scientists expect exposure to micro-gravity and cosmic radiation will cause genetic mutations in the seeds that will lead to plants with higher crop yields. According to the state press, China has previously found that tomato and pepper seeds launched into space result in 10% to 20% increases in yield and crops with a higher vitamin content.
Yang Liwei, China's first Taikonaut, discussed his experience training for space flight and viewing the Earth from space with youths brought together at Beijing's 36th Committee on Space Research Scientific Assembly. Yang rode the Chinese rocket Shenzhou-5 into space in October 2003, after eight years of training. At the assembly, Yang also remarked on his survival training in the Russian wilderness as well as claims that the Chinese space rocket is just a copy of the Russian Soyuz.
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American Hunter Gets a Different Kind of Bird Flu
A US duck hunter and two state wildlife employees showed traces of an uncommon strain of bird flu in their blood, researchers reported this week. The strain, known as H11N9, is not related to the much-feared H5N1 strain of avian influenza and is not known to be dangerous to humans. But the finding is one of the first to suggest that hunters, who are frequently exposed to waterfowl, are at risk of contracting bird flu.
Attacks by animal rights activists in Britain decreased significantly in the first half of 2006, the country's drug industry announced. There were just 15 attacks on private homes in the first six months of this year, fewer than half the number during the same period in 2005. Philip Wright, director of science and technology at the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, attributes the drop to better policing and new legislation intended to curb extremists.
German anthropologists and a US company announced plans to sequence the DNA of Neanderthals. The enterprise should illuminate longstanding questions about human evolution, such as whether humans and Neanderthals interbred. A Connecticut biotechnology company, 454 Life Sciences, developed the sequencing technology—which works even with the small amounts of DNA researchers have been able to recover from Neanderthal remains.
Climate Change From Ocean's Floor to Planet's Parks
Methane gas escaping from the ocean floor likely plays a role in climate change, say scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara. It was previously known that small bubbles of the gas emanating from the bottom of the ocean dissolve into the surrounding waters, but the researchers report that large blowouts of methane gas also escape from the ocean floor. Such huge releases of methane are at least 20 times as potent as carbon dioxide and send nearly all the gas into the atmosphere.