CERN is a de facto global laboratory, with the LHC set to be the centre of particle-physics research for a decade or more, and comprises the largest scientific user community in the world. More than just a particle factory, CERN is a knowledge factory, enabling scientists to make discoveries, disseminate them and train younger generations. CERN is an example to the world of international scientific, technical and human collaboration.
| The beauty and terror of science [Salon] | 5:34 PM, Aug 10 2009 |
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Romantic poets and scientists tapped the marvels of nature and sounded a clarion alarm that can transform us today... |
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| Xenoglossy - Evidence of past lives? | 10:45 AM, Aug 03 2009 |
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How should we understand xenoglossy, the capacity to speak a never-before-heard foreign language? Religion, science, and the skeptics of the world have tried to explain this phenomenon in various ways, including genetic memory, telepathy, or cryptonesia (recalling a foreign language learnt unconsciously or during childhood). However, xenoglossy has seen many manifestations throughout history, and none of these responses can adequately explain every case. |
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| "I'm tired of just being a man" - By Charles Siebert [Salon] | 6:27 PM, Jul 12 2009 |
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How I learned about my own animality (and "humanzees," Stalin and scary creationists) by living with a chimp..... |
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| Holy Sh..t we're small - see the pictures! | 9:08 AM, Apr 15 2009 |
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New pictures we receive from Hubble show the incredible vastness of the universe and our own size in relation to our neighbours. |
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| Can you decode these emotions? [Guardian] | 9:38 AM, Jun 29 2009 |
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The ability to read facial expressions is something most of us take for granted. But how accurate are our assessments? The following test, created by Paul Ekman, demonstrates just how tricky it can be: |
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| Masterstroke: Man who couldn't draw even stickmen wakes from brain surgery as a talented artist | 8:24 PM, Aug 18 2009 |
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For most, stroke and brain surgery can be devastating but for Alan Brown it sparked a previously unseen talent....as an artist. When Alan, 49, emerged from a gruelling 16-hour operation following his stroke, he found he had become a reborn 'Michelangelo' and was able to paint and draw with incredible. |
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| Scientists unveil the Missing Link in evolution [Sky News] | 5:37 AM, May 20 2009 |
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Scientists have unveiled a 47-million-year-old fossilised skeleton of a monkey hailed as the missing link in human evolution. The search for a direct connection between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom has taken 200 years - but it was presented to the world today at a special news conference in New York. |
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| Half of Britons do not believe in Darwinian evolution, survey finds [Guardian] | 10:47 AM, Feb 02 2009 |
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Later this month scientists and academics from across Europe will meet in Dortmund, Germany, to discuss evolution and creationism. It will be the first European conference of its kind to deal with different aspects of attitudes and knowledge related to evolution. They will discuss specific difficulties regarding the acceptance of evolution theory in their home countries. |
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| Real science comes to Washington [Salon] | 12:23 PM, Jan 26 2009 |
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Myopic conservatives and the media still don't get global warming. But if anybody can preserve a livable climate, Obama's amazing energy team can. |
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| Gallactic collision will happen sooner than scientists thought [The Guardian] | 11:07 AM, Jan 06 2009 |
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If the return to work, grim weather and global economic downturn were not enough to contend with, astronomers added to the seasonal gloom today by announcing that the Milky Way is set to crash into a nearby galaxy sooner than they thought. |
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| Global boiling. [Salon] | 10:58 AM, Dec 12 2008 |
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Some geologists say rising temperatures will uncork vast deposits of undersea methane. If they're right, we're cooked. |
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| "Hobbits" of Flores: Implications for the pattern of human evolution [WSWS] | 1:56 PM, Feb 16 2009 |
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Both the unilineal and multilineal models of human evolution have been constructed within the overall paradigm of modern evolutionary theory. However, the two place different emphases on the degree to which culture (i.e., non-biological adaptation) modified the selective pressures of the natural environment on hominin populations and, therefore, on the course of evolutionary development. The conflict between these two interpretations, and there are certainly variations within each camp, acts to continually test the "fit" between predictions made on the basis of each model and the results of discovery and experimentation. The adherents of one camp are ever ready to attempt to poke holes in the interpretations of the other. This drives research to examine specific questions in ever-greater detail, questions that might otherwise not have been considered worthy of investigation or even have been formulated at all. |
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| Our unconscious brain makes the best decisions possible [physorg] | 8:22 AM, Dec 25 2008 |
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Neuroscientists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky received a 2002 Nobel Prize for their 1979 research that argued humans rarely make rational decisions. Since then, this has become conventional wisdom among cognition researchers. Contrary to Kahnneman and Tversky's research, Alex Pouget, associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester, has shown that people do indeed make optimal decisions - but only when their unconscious brain makes the choice. |
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| Darwin is no help on the origins of greed. [Guardian] | 10:52 AM, Nov 16 2008 |
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Rapacious capitalists used Darwinism to justify extremes of wealth. Fascists and racists used it to justify mass murder. In the Sixties the understandable backlash against 'scientific' racism went to the opposite extreme, creating a biology riddled with taboos and no-go areas. To say that humans were as much the product of evolution as any other animal was like announcing you had joined the Nazis. In 1975, the colleagues of EO Wilson shamefully abused the Harvard scientist for daring to argue that biology influenced human behaviour. The American Anthropological Association claimed he had attempted 'to justify genetically the sexist, racist and elitist status quo in human society' (an act of intellectual thuggery Time magazine likened to the Catholic church's denunciation of Galileo). |
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| India launches first moon mission. [CNN] | 4:58 AM, Oct 22 2008 |
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The two-year mission seeks high-resolution imaging of the moon's surface, especially the permanently shadowed polar regions, according to the Indian Space Research Organization. It will also search for evidence of water or ice and attempt to identify the chemical breakdown of certain lunar rocks, the group said. |
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| The Search for our Universe's "Genome" - A Mechanism for Mass. | 10:24 AM, Sep 29 2008 |
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"The experimental discovery of the W and Z particles confirmed both the validity of the electroweak model," explained Francois Englert "and of the BEH mechanism." There remained, however, a missing ingredient. A machine was needed that could shake the scalar boson of the BEH mechanism out of its hiding place in the vacuum of space. That machine is the LHC. Many scientists would, and indeed have, bet on the discovery of the particle, but however elegant and enticing the work of Brout, Englert and Higgs, no-one can be sure it is right until the scalar boson has been seen. Nature might have chosen to endow particles with mass in a different way, so until the particle is found, the BEH mechanism remains no more than speculation. Whatever the case, the LHC will give us the answer. |
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| LHC: The Testbed for the Search for Universe's "Genome". | 10:25 AM, Sep 29 2008 |
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Several nations have launched new Grid-oriented initiatives - in the US by NASA and the National Science Foundation, while in Europe particle physics provides a natural focus for work in, among others, the UK, France, Italy and Holland. Other areas of science, such as Earth observation and bioinformatics, are also on board. In Europe, European Commission funding is being sought to underwrite this major effort to propel computing into a new orbit. |
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| Astrobiology 2008. [Video - Rap] | 4:54 PM, Oct 01 2008 |
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| Science lessons should tackle creationism & intelligent design. | 7:06 AM, Sep 17 2008 |
Teachers need to accommodate the differing world views of students from Jewish, Christian or Muslim backgrounds - which means openly discussing creationism and intelligent design as alternatives to evolutionary theory. |
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| Michael Reiss resigns over his call for creationism in science lessons.[Guardian] | 7:26 PM, Sep 16 2008 |
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The director of education at the Royal Society has stepped down 'by mutual agreement' after the press reported he had called for creationism to be taught in school science. |
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| CERN in 3 Minutes - The place where science flourishes. | 10:43 AM, Sep 01 2008 |
| Read More | |
| Large Hadron Rap. [A song in praise of the great 'Big Bang' Machine.] | 10:19 AM, Sep 01 2008 |
| Read More | |
| Intro to the "Big Bang Machine" (LHC) - Video. | 10:33 AM, Sep 01 2008 |
| Read More | |
| The Big Bang Experiment - Physicists ignore "black hole" warnings. | 6:50 AM, Sep 10 2008 |
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Leading physicists are set to go ahead with a Big Bang experiment despite warnings it could destroy the universe. |
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| Multibillion-dollar Big Bang experiment to probe Universe's mysteries. | 5:26 PM, Sep 08 2008 |
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Deep underground on the border between France and Switzerland, the world's largest particle accelerator complex will explore the world on smaller scales than any human invention has explored before. |
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| Why can't we divide by zero. | 9:42 AM, Sep 29 2008 |
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The reason that the result of a division by zero is undefined is the fact that any attempt at a definition leads to a contradiction. |
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| Deepening the Quantum Mysteries | 6:44 AM, Feb 16 2008 |
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The "central mystery" of quantum physics just got more mysterious. Experimenters from the United States and Austria have got together to provide a new demonstration of how light going through a "double slit" experiment seems to know before it sets out in its journey exactly what kind of traps have been set for it along the way. |
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| Creation Vs Evolution: The Islamic debate. (Guardian) | 10:49 AM, Sep 01 2008 |
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I invite you to read the following debate between two Islamic scholars - Inayat Bunglawala & Harun Yahya - on evolution. Both of them believe in God (Allah). But, Bunglawala supports evolution while Yahya opposes it. I hope you'd find the debate interesting. After grasping their arguments thoroughly I invite you to read my essay on "creation & evolution" in the Editor's Essays. Click here to read the confrontation... |
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| Anti-science conservatives must be stopped. | 12:22 PM, Jul 02 2008 |
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Americans must not allow global warming deniers to block the policies needed to avert catastrophic climate change. Our future is at stake. |
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| Study shows monkeys experience joy of giving. | 7:45 AM, Aug 27 2008 |
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Tests in capuchin monkeys showed the animals consistently chose to share food with another monkey if given the option, suggesting they are capable of empathy, the team at the Yerkes Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta found. |
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| Survival of the wisest. | 4:18 AM, Jul 01 2008 |
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Perhaps curiously, the latest buzz- word in biology - systems biology- may weigh in on the side of the individual. The key insight of systems biology is that genes don't really exist in isolation but only as components of complex systems of cells and organisms. In this sense genes, selfish or not, are unlikely units of natural selection. So the individual, rather than his or her genes, may finally have the last word. As naturalists who spent their lives studying biological form, Darwin and Wallace would surely have been delighted with this renewed interest in whole organisms, rather than their parts. |
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| Introducing the Big Bang Machine. | 4:23 AM, Jun 30 2008 |
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In 1915, Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity solved the conundrum: space and time were not fixed backgrounds to events, but dynamic entities. And, just as there is no point further south than the South Pole, time cannot exist outside the universe. But there was a problem: Einstein's idea, which describes the very large, does not fit with the other pillar of 20th century physics - quantum theory - which describes the very small. The Large Hadron Collider at Cern in Geneva, which switches on this summer after 20 years of preparation, is an attempt to bring us closer to solving this dilemma. It will smash particles together to recreate the moments after the big bang, producing a new golden age of discovery for physicists. The essays that follow give a taste of our excitement. |
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| The Big Bang Machine in pictures. | 4:33 AM, Jun 30 2008 |
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Inside the world's most ambitious experiment: |
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| Podcast: Chris Morris visits the LHC [Large Hadron Collider]. | 4:45 AM, Jun 30 2008 |
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Physicist Brian Cox guides satirist Chris Morris around the Large Hadron Collider. Produced by yada-yada for Cern. |
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| LHC: Masters of the universe. | 5:18 AM, Jun 30 2008 |
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The size of London's Circle Line and engineered to one-billionth of a metre accuracy, the £3bn, 27km circular proton accelerator deep beneath the Swiss-French border is the world's largest machine. And it's been built to uncover the smallest fragments of the cosmos. Robin McKie travels to Geneva to meet the scientists determined to prove the existence of the God particle. |
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| LHC: The brains behind the operation. | 4:58 AM, Jun 30 2008 |
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How do you top the invention of the world wide web? Bobbie Johnson introduces Cern's plan for the next leap forward in computer technology: the grid |
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| LHC: Worth every penny. | 4:56 AM, Jun 30 2008 |
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Building the LHC has cost the world's taxpayers more than £5bn so far. Lawrence Krauss explains why understanding particle collisions is, like great art, music or literature, a vital part of human culture. |
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| LHC: 'Genesis Machine' poised to end quest for 'God Particle'. | 5:15 AM, Jun 30 2008 |
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Collider will reproduce conditions that existed an instant after the Big Bang. |
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| LHC: Cern in numbers. | 4:50 AM, Jun 30 2008 |
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Extraordinary facts and figures relating to the LHC. |
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| LHC: Summer smash. | 5:08 AM, Jun 30 2008 |
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Proof of the so-called standard model of particle physics hangs on a huge experiment taking place this summer deep beneath the Swiss border. Robert Matthews reports: |
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| [In the beginning...] Scientists get ready to hunt for the 'God Particle'. | 5:27 AM, Jun 30 2008 |
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Giant machine to recreate conditions of big bang - Collider may create miniature black holes. |
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| A journey to the edge of understanding. | 4:38 AM, Jun 30 2008 |
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More than two decades in the making, the Large Hadron Collider is in its final months before the grand switch-on. Brian Cox tours the vast underground caverns near Geneva that will shape the future of physics. |
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| Falling off the edge of the world. | 4:47 AM, Jun 30 2008 |
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Exploring the unknown may be dangerous but the risks are always worthwhile, says AC Grayling. |
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| Father of the "God Particle". | 4:40 AM, Jun 30 2008 |
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To many people, the sole purpose of the LHC is to find the famous Higgs boson. James Randerson met the self-effacing man behind the legend. |
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| Welcome to the particle menagerie. | 5:03 AM, Jun 30 2008 |
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Up, down, top, bottom, charm, strange, axions, sleptons and quarks. How do physicists dream up such whimsical names for the fundamental particles they discover? Simon Singh explains: |
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| Higgs & his boson. | 5:11 AM, Jun 30 2008 |
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I sincerely hope I'm not the only one who's at least slightly worried about this mad scientist Peter Higgs and his "Genesis machine" (Collider will reproduce conditions that existed an instant after the Big Bang, April 8). I first heard about it last year, when Higgs or one of his team was on the radio saying that there was a mere one in 50 billion chance that his machine might destroy the universe. |
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| Beyond the standard model. | 5:06 AM, Jun 30 2008 |
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Experiments at Cern will tackle a dilemma at the heart of modern physics that defeated even Einstein, says Jim al-Khalili. |
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| A temple to mystery & imagination. | 4:35 AM, Jun 30 2008 |
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The enormous constructions at Cern evoke great cathedrals and Egyptian pyramids, says Jonathan Glancey. Paradoxically, this extreme expression of modern science may be the most spritual structure of our time. |
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| The cosmic building blocks. | 4:25 AM, Jun 30 2008 |
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Martin Rees introduces the Large Hadron Collider at Cern, the most powerful experiment ever to probe the greatest of questions in physics: what is the universe made of and how did it all begin? |
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| Massive bosons blew my unit. | 4:29 AM, Jun 30 2008 |
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When Chris Morris visited the LHC, he found a machine to create God for two billionths of a second and a man who wants to smash your face with protons. |
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| The end of the world as we know it? | 4:54 AM, Jun 30 2008 |
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Scaremongers have warned that the collisions at Cern could unleash incalculable danger and perhaps even destroy the Earth. Michio Kaku puts some fears to rest. |
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| How Darwin won the evolution race. | 9:21 AM, Jun 22 2008 |
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It's 150 years since Darwin made one of the the most significant breakthroughs in scientific history - the theory of natural selection. But if it hadn't been for a young ornithologist on the other side of the world, his seminal work might never have appeared. Robin McKie tells the extraordinary story behind The Origin of Species. |
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| Einstein letter sold for record sum - Part 1 | 7:34 PM, Jun 24 2008 |
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A previously unknown letter of Einstein's recently came up for sale at auction. It is a remarkable document because it contains the great physicist's candid comments on religion. Einstein wrote that "the word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish." |
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| Einstein letter sold for record sum - Part 2 | 7:12 PM, Jun 24 2008 |
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Albert Einstein was educated in both the Christian and Jewish religions, but he became a convinced atheist at the age of 12 and refused to take part in the Jewish Bar Mitzvah ceremony. His marriage in 1903 was a purely civic and non-religious occasion. |
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| The Scientific Proof of Reincarnation (Interview with Prof. Ian Stevenson) | 6:49 AM, Feb 16 2008 |
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"Either he [Dr. Stevenson] is making a colossal mistake. Or he will be known as the Galileo of the 20th century." Dr Harold Lief in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease Introduction + Full Interview... |
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| Cloned immune cells cleared patient's cancer. | 5:37 AM, Jun 19 2008 |
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A patient whose skin cancer had spread throughout his body has been given the all-clear after being injected with billions of his own immune cells. Tests revealed that the 52-year-old man's tumours, which spread from his skin to his lung and groin, vanished within two months of having the treatment, and had not returned two years later. |
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| A Do-it-Yourself Quantum Eraser. (Scientific American) | 9:09 AM, May 29 2008 |
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Notoriously, the theory of quantum mechanics reveals a fundamental weirdness in the way the world works. Commonsense notions at the very heart of our everyday perceptions of reality turn out to be violated: contradictory alternatives can coexist, such as an object following two different paths at the same time; objects do not simultaneously have precise positions and velocities; and the properties of objects and events we observe can be subject to an ineradicable randomness that has nothing to do with the imperfection of our tools or our eyesight. Click Here for the Full Article... |
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| The Beginning of Time - Prof. Stephen Hawking | 2:22 PM, May 16 2008 |
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In this lecture, I would like to discuss whether time itself has a beginning, and whether it will have an end. All the evidence seems to indicate, that the universe has not existed forever, but that it had a beginning, about 15 billion years ago. This is probably the most remarkable discovery of modern cosmology. Yet it is now taken for granted. We are not yet certain whether the universe will have an end. When I gave a lecture in Japan, I was asked not to mention the possible re-collapse of the universe, because it might affect the stock market. However, I can re-assure anyone who is nervous about their investments that it is a bit early to sell: even if the universe does come to an end, it won't be for at least twenty billion years. By that time, maybe the GATT trade agreement will have come into effect. Click Here for the Full Lecture... |
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| Universe's Invisible Hand | 2:30 PM, Feb 07 2008 |
Dark energy does more than hurry along the expansion of the universe. It also has a stranglehold on the shape and spacing of galaxies... |
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| The Anthropic Principle | 6:45 AM, Feb 16 2008 |
"everything about the universe tends toward humans, toward making life possible and sustaining it" Hugh Ross
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| Astronomers find a batch of "super-Earths". | 1:57 PM, Jun 16 2008 |
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European researchers said on Monday they discovered a batch of three "super-Earths" orbiting a nearby star, and two other solar systems with small planets as well. They said their findings, presented at a conference in France, suggest that Earth-like planets may be very common. |
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| 8-limbed 'goddess' baby becoming normal little girl again. | 8:05 AM, Jun 21 2008 |
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Lakshmi Tatma whirls around in her walker at a charity school for disabled children in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India, one tiny arm holding a balloon, her bandaged legs splayed wide apart, an enormous smile on her face. |
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| Cosmology for Bigginers | 6:44 AM, Feb 16 2008 |
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INFLATION has become a cosmological buzzword in the 1990s. No self-respecting theory of the Universe is complete without a reference to inflation -- and at the same time there is now a bewildering variety of different versions of inflation to choose from. Clearly, what's needed is a beginner's guide to inflation, where newcomers to cosmology can find out just what this exciting development is all about. This is it -- new readers start here. |
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| Is "Supreme Intelligence hypothesis" scientifically plausible? - Former Atheist Prof. Flew says: Yes. | 7:27 PM, Mar 17 2008 |
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Editor's Comment: An interesting interview with an intellectual giant, Prof. Flew (formerly an ardent atheist) may enlighten many atheists to probe into the questions of God, the meaning of space-time existence etc., with a far more open mind. Particularly in view of mounting evidence from Big Bang cosmology, fine-tuning of the universe and genomics etc., time may be up for us to re-examine the assumptions of our traditional world-views. Click here for an Introduction + the Interview... |
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| British PM says embryo research is key to life. | 6:16 AM, May 18 2008 |
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Gordon Brown today mounts a passionate and personal defence of scientific research using animal-human hybrid embryos as an 'inherently moral endeavour' that could save millions of lives. Writing in today's Observer, he challenges critics in the churches and elsewhere who condemn what they regard as 'Frankenstein science', arguing that MPs 'owe it to ourselves and future generations to introduce these measures' when they vote on controversial embryology legislation this week. |
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| Hard Drive (Sex Drive). | 4:20 PM, Jun 14 2008 |
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Human males have yet to evolve flesh-eating sperm like some animals, but their biological imperative for sex has made them into the creatures they are today. |
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| NASA pictures reveal deadly Black Hole. | 12:23 PM, May 16 2008 |
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Images from the Chandra X-ray Observatory suggest a massive black hole at the heart of a galaxy is emitting a powerful stream of radiation that is destroying everything in its path, including another galaxy. Click here to see the Video... |
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| The Large Hadron Collider runs on woman power. | 10:04 AM, Apr 26 2008 |
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Paola Catapano went in search of some of the women working on the LHC project, to find out about their work at CERN and talk about life in a mainly male environment. |
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| Neuroscience explores our internal universe. | 10:16 AM, Apr 26 2008 |
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The 20th century brought many advances in fundamental physics, including the discovery of elementary particles. During this same period, neuroscience provided greater illumination of the brain's functions. One of the most significant is the identification of individual nerve cells and their connections by Camillo Golgi and Santiago Ramony Cajal, winners of the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1906. Another important advance was the introduction of the discontinuity theory, which regards neurons as isolated cells that transmit chemical signals to each other. This understanding allowed neuroscientists to determine the way in which the brain communicates with other parts of itself and the rest of the body. |
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| A Retrospective on the man behind the Reincarnation Project | 6:47 AM, Feb 16 2008 |
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Stevenson was the founder of scientific research into reincarnation and was best known for collecting and meticulously researching cases of children who seem to recall past lives without the need for hypnosis.In 1967, Stevenson was appointed as Director of the Division of Personality Studies (later renamed Division of Perceptual Studies) (DOPS) and, for a period was also Head of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia. Stevenson went on to conduct additional field research about reincarnation in Africa, Alaska, British Columbia, Burma, South America, Lebanon, Turkey, and many other places. |
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| Richard Dawkins Vs Madeline Bunting: Debate on "Truth & Manners" | 7:29 PM, Mar 17 2008 |
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Editor's Comment: This debate between Richard Dawkins and Madeline Bunting brings out an important point: never confuse issues, as Bunting seems to do. Dawkins' style of writing is one thing; whether what he says is valid or not is another. One must be careful not to muddle up the two. Personally I have no quarrel with his 'rudeness'. (In fact, I enjoy his uncompromisingly forthright bluntness. He doesn't mince words. It's easy to see what he means.) Veracity of what Dawkins says should be tackled on scientific grounds, methodological grounds. Whether he is 'politically correct or not' is a boring subject; for that's got nothing to do with his arguments' validity. [Read: "The problem with Dawkins' anti-God crusade & Darwin's gradualism" in the Editor's Essays column] Click Here for Podcast Special... |
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| Gene therapy to restore eyesight. | 9:19 AM, Apr 28 2008 |
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Scientists have successfully restored the sight of a man with inherited blindness using gene therapy. |
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| New way to bend particles. | 9:59 AM, Apr 26 2008 |
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A move from channelling to reflection of particle beams in bent crystals is not only opening opportunities for applications in accelerators but also, perhaps, in outer space. |
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| Particle Physics prove that arsenic didn't kill Napoleon. | 10:07 AM, Apr 26 2008 |
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A meticulous new examination performed at the INFN laboratories in Milano-Bicocca and Pavia in Italy has shown that arsenic poisoning did not kill Napoleon. The researchers demonstrated that there is no evidence of a significant increase in the levels of arsenic in the emperor's hair during the final period of his life. |
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| A vision for the future of Cern. | 10:18 AM, Apr 26 2008 |
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While the LHC will excite the imaginations of high-energy physicists in the next decade, according to John Ellis, CERN's international partnerships will provide the framework for its future projects. |
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| Earth's hum sounds more mysterious than ever. | 12:33 PM, Apr 17 2008 |
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Earth gives off a relentless hum of countless notes completely imperceptible to the human ear, like a giant, exceptionally quiet symphony, but the origin of this sound remains a mystery. |
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| "Does God Play Dice?" Public Lecture by Prof. Stephen Hawking | 6:43 AM, Feb 16 2008 |
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This lecture is about whether we can predict the future, or whether it is arbitrary and random. In ancient times, the world must have seemed pretty arbitrary. Disasters such as floods or diseases must have seemed to happen without warning, or apparent reason. Primitive people attributed such natural phenomena, to a pantheon of gods and goddesses, who behaved in a capricious and whimsical way. There was no way to predict what they would do, and the only hope was to win favour by gifts or actions. Many people still partially subscribe to this belief, and try to make a pact with fortune. They offer to do certain things, if only they can get an A-grade for a course, or pass their driving test. Click Here for the Full Lecture... |
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| Shock: First animal on Earth was surprisingly complex. | 3:59 PM, Apr 11 2008 |
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Earth's first animal was the ocean-drifting comb jelly, not the simple sponge, according to a new find that has shocked scientists who didn't imagine the earliest critter could be so complex. Read More... |
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| The Parent Trap. | 4:44 PM, Mar 31 2008 |
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As the market for infant products grows ever more absurd, author Pamela Paul takes on $800 strollers, Gymboree and the bamboozle that is Baby Einstein. |
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| The chimp who thought he was a boy. | 4:37 PM, Mar 31 2008 |
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How else to account for a man who approaches a female chimp nursing its wide-eyed newborn, takes aim amid howling protests from nearby apes and blasts the mother with a tranquilizer dart -- then snatches the sobbing infant and delivers it to an otherwise thoughtful, loving woman, who whisks the creature off to her New York brownstone? |
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| Fossil find could be Europe's first humans. | 12:31 PM, Mar 27 2008 |
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A fossilised jawbone and teeth found in a cave in northern Spain may have belonged to one of the first human ancestors to set foot in western Europe. The hominid has been identified as Homo antecessor, or pioneer man, a possible ancestor of both our own species and Neanderthals. The fossils date from between 1.1m and 1.2m years ago. |
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| Professor Stevenson - Obituary | 6:45 AM, Feb 16 2008 |
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Professor Ian Stevenson, who died on February 8 aged 88, was the world's foremost scientific authority on the study of reincarnation; the founder and director of the Division of Personality Studies at the University of Virginia, Stevenson spent more than 40 years travelling the world, accumulating more than 3,000 cases of children who appeared to have memories of previous lives. |
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| E.T. Contact Would Transform Society | 6:43 AM, Feb 16 2008 |
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For centuries scientists, novelists and ordinary people have imagined what would happen if the human race had contact with an extra-terrestrial civilization. |
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| Stem cell could help stroke victims. | 12:57 PM, Feb 20 2008 |
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Stroke patients could receive stem cell injections to help repair damage to their brains within the next five years, a team of American doctors claimed yesterday. Hopes that a therapy may be on the horizon were boosted by experiments which showed human embryonic stem cells could be turned into a variety of brain cells, which helped animals recover from strokes without causing dangerous side effects. |
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| HIV Vaccine research hits impasse. | 6:42 AM, Feb 16 2008 |
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Scientists are no further forward in developing a vaccine against HIV after more than 20 years of research, a Nobel Prize-winning biologist has said. |
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| Leading thinkers identify the greatest challenges facing humanity. | 6:42 AM, Feb 16 2008 |
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Reversing the effects of ageing, reprogramming genes to prevent diseases and producing clean energy are some of the biggest challenges for the next 50 years, according to a group of leading experts. |
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| Scientists find fish that can count. | 12:27 PM, Feb 26 2008 |
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Pythagoras, Euler and Fermat may not be nervously twitching in their caskets just yet, but the uniqueness of humankind's mathematical abilities has taken yet another knock from the animal kingdom. Fish are able to count to four, according to experiments which involved giving them the option of joining shoals of different sizes. |
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| Monsters of the deep. | 12:53 PM, Feb 20 2008 |
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Giant sea creatures, including sea spiders the size of dinner plates and |
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| New meat-eating dinos identified. | 6:42 AM, Feb 16 2008 |
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Two previously unknown types of meat-eating dinosaur have been identified from fossils unearthed in the Sahara desert in Niger. |
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| Female G-spot can be detected. | 11:12 AM, Feb 21 2008 |
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The mysterious G spot - supposedly a route to female sexual satisfaction - can be located with ultrasound, claim Italian scientists. |
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| Is it possible to be moral without God? | 6:49 AM, Feb 16 2008 |
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We should recognise and celebrate good wherever we come across it, while being ready to acknowledge and counter the darker side of human nature... |
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