The new map of the universe that is in full color, covers more than one quarter of the entire sky, and is full of so much detail that you would need five-hundred-thousand high-definition TVs to view it all. The map consists of more than one-trillion pixels measured by meticulously scanning the sky with a special-purpose telescope located in New Mexico. This week, at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas, the SDSS scientists announced results of four separate studies of this new map that, taken together, provide a history of the universe over the last six-billion years.
"This map of the universe, constructed from observations over the past decade, is an unprecedented view of the distribution of stars, galaxies, and quasars, and allows us to trace the evolution of the constituents of the universe over vast swaths of cosmic time," said Donald Schneider, head of Penn State's Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, the SDSS survey coordinator, and a coauthor on all four studies. Two additional department members, Distinguished Professor Niel Brandt and Assistant Professor Suvrath Mahadevan, are participants in the SDSS.
The final version of the SDSS map was published online last year and has been viewed more than a million times by astronomers, students, and citizen scientists from all over the world, and it has been studied in depth by international teams of scientists from the SDSS collaboration.
The scientific results announced this week are based on an investigation of the clustering of galaxies all over the sky. "The galaxies we see today give us clues to the history of our universe," says Shirley Ho, an astrophysicist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL) and the Bruce and Astrid McWilliams Center for Cosmology at Carnegie Mellon University, who was the lead author of one of the papers. "The way galaxies cluster together today can tell us two things. First, galaxy clustering can provide a measuring stick to see how the universe has expanded over time. Second, we can use that information to calculate exactly how much matter the universe contains, and what fraction consists of ordinary matter, dark matter, dark energy, and neutrinos."
The other three papers explore various pieces of the universe in more detail. A team led by Hee-Jong Seo of the Berkeley Center for Cosmological Physics at LBL and the University of California Berkeley compared the observed clustering of nearby galaxies to those in the early universe to obtained a detailed picture of the universe's expansion, while a team led by Roland de Putter of the University of Barcelona used the clustering data to determine the mass of the neutrino, a subatomic particle that only recently was proven to have any mass at all. None of these results would have been possible without the work of a team led by Ashley Ross of the University of Portsmouth (UK), who carefully studied how other effects, such as the presence of stars in our galaxy, affect these conclusions.
The first step in the research was to identify 900,000 "luminous galaxies" seen by the SDSS -- so-called because they shine much brighter than typical galaxies, meaning that they can be seen at great distances across the universe. "By covering such a large area of sky and working at such large distances, these measurements are able to probe the clustering of galaxies on incredibly vast scales," says Martin White, a member of the research team based at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California Berkeley.
The luminous galaxy measurements were used by Ross's team to determine what additional factors needed to be taken into account. "Because we are looking out at the universe from one place -- the Earth -- we don't always get a clear picture of what the universe as a whole looks like," says Ross. "We have to carefully consider what that means, to make sure that we don't mistake an accident of our Earthbound view for the true structure of the universe."
Armed with the proper estimates of how luminous galaxies cluster, the researchers compared the estimates for the clustering of nearby galaxies with those much farther away. "This analysis is one of the most trustworthy ways to measure dark energy," Seo says. "The imprint of sound waves in the early universe leaves a clear signature on the clustering of galaxies known as baryon acoustic oscillation. By comparing the size of this feature, seen in the cosmic microwave background just 300,000 years after the Big Bang, to that measured by SDSS-III for galaxies 7-11 billion years later, we can measure how the universe has expanded over that time and can learn about the nature of dark energy."
By comparing the distances to galaxies with how much the universe has expanded since light left those galaxies, astronomers can learn more about the nature of the mysterious dark energy currently driving the increasing rate of that expansion. "These studies allow us to look back six-billion years, to a time when the universe was almost half as old as it is now," said Antonio Cuesta of Yale University, a key member of all four research teams. Among the results: assuming the most widely accepted and likeliest cosmological model, the researchers found that dark energy accounts for 73 percent of the universe, with a margin of error of only two percent.
The SDSS's map covers almost unimaginably large scales but, amazingly, it also offers insights into the almost unimaginably small. The universe is full of tiny particles called neutrinos, the by-products of the nuclear reactions that make stars shine. Many trillions of the tiny particles pass harmlessly through the Earth every second. When initially discovered, it was believed that neutrinos were massless. Recent work by particle physicists have demonstrated that the neutrino has a small mass, but they have been able to place only an upper limit on this value.
Astronomy offers another approach to determining the mass of this ubiquitous subatomic particle. A team led by Roland de Putter of the University of Valencia in Spain examined the SDSS's map to estimate the largest neutrino mass consistent with the universe we see. "One of the greatest laboratories for particle physics is the universe itself," de Putter says. The team's study pinpointed the largest possible neutrino mass at less than a millionth of the mass of an electron -- a better constraint by a factor of ten than can be offered by traditional particle-physics methods.
The four papers announced this week fit together to help in understanding the history of the universe in unprecedented detail. But even more detail is still to come. Later this year, the SDSS will publish Data Release 9, which will include highly accurate distance measurements to many galaxies, substituting these accurate measurements for the estimates used in the four new studies.
"For each and every one of our million galaxies," Cuesta says, "we will replace its estimated distance with a very precise measure. Our upcoming map will bring the universe into sharp focus." Seeing the universe in sharp focus will almost certainly help advance our understanding of the whole universe -- from the very large to the very small.
Completing one orbit in only 18 hours, the alien planet is 26 times closer to its parent star than Mercury is to the Sun. If Earth were in the same position, the soil beneath our feet would heat up to about 3200 F. Researchers have long thought that 55 Cancri e must be a wasteland of parched rock.
Now they’re thinking again. New observations by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope suggest that 55 Cancri e may be wetter and weirder than anyone imagined.
Spitzer recently measured the extraordinarily small amount of light 55 Cancri e blocks when it crosses in front of its star. These transits occur every 18 hours, giving researchers repeated opportunities to gather the data they need to estimate the width, volume and density of the planet.
According to the new observations, 55 Cancri e has a mass 7.8 times and a radius just over twice that of Earth. Those properties place 55 Cancri e in the "super-Earth" class of exoplanets, a few dozen of which have been found. Only a handful of known super-Earths, however, cross the face of their stars as viewed from our vantage point in the cosmos, so 55 Cancri e is better understood than most.
When 55 Cancri e was discovered in 2004, initial estimates of its size and mass were consistent with a dense planet of solid rock. Spitzer data suggest otherwise: About a fifth of the planet's mass must be made of light elements and compounds--including water. Given the intense heat and high pressure these materials likely experience, researchers think the compounds likely exist in a "supercritical" fluid state.
A supercritical fluid is a high-pressure, high-temperature state of matter best described as a liquid-like gas, and a marvelous solvent. Water becomes supercritical in some steam turbines--and it tends to dissolve the tips of the turbine blades. Supercritical carbon dioxide is used to remove caffeine from coffee beans, and sometimes to dry-clean clothes. Liquid-fueled rocket propellant is also supercritical when it emerges from the tail of a spaceship.
On 55 Cancri e, this stuff may be literally oozing--or is it steaming?--out of the rocks.
With supercritical solvents rising from the planet’s surface, a star of terrifying proportions filling much of the daytime sky, and whole years rushing past in a matter of hours, 55 Cancri e teaches a valuable lesson: Just because a planet is similar in size to Earth does not mean the planet is like Earth.
Joe Rogan was the host of the hugely successful reality show, “Fear Factor,” for six seasons on NBC. Prior to “Fear Factor”, Rogan played Joe Garrelli, the resident electrician on the hit NBC comedy series “NewsRadio.”
Since 2002, Rogan has provided color commentary for the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) on Pay Per View and Spike Television and also hosts the syndicated show, “UFC Wired.” Rogan’s passion for MMA began with martial arts practice at the age of 13. Within two years, the Boston native earned a black belt and soon became the Massachusetts full contact Tae Kwon Do champion four consecutive years. By the age of 19, Rogan won the US Open Tae Kwon Do Championship and as lightweight champion went on to beat both the middle and heavyweight title-holders to obtain the Grand Championship.
Rogan’s other true love is standup comedy. As a standup comedian for nearly 20 years Joe Rogan has honed an inquisitive and intense comedic style. He exudes a mad joy for life in all its insanity and revels in the art of standup comedy to explore the world with raw honesty. This has made him a national headliner, a favorite performer at the prestigious Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal and a guest on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” In 2000, Rogan released his debut comedy album, “I’m Gonna Be Dead Someday,” on Warner Bros. Records. In April of 2007 he released a follow-up CD, “Shiny Happy Jihad” on Comedy Central Records. Rogan’s debut DVD “Joe Rogan Live” aired on Showtime in the spring of 2007.
Rogan resides in Los Angeles and regularly performs stand-up locally and nationally.
Joseph James "Joe" Rogan (born August 11, 1967) is an American martial artist, stand-up comedian, actor, writer and color commentator. He is best known for playing Joe Garrelli on the NBC sitcom NewsRadio, commentating for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, hosting the NBC reality show Fear Factor and The Joe Rogan Experience podcast.
If you’ve ever watched a cephalopod such as a squid changing color, then you’ll know that it’s a pretty amazing process – they can instantly change the appearance of their skin from dark to light and back again, or even create pulsating bands of color that travel across it. They are able to do this thanks to muscles that manipulate the pigmentation of their skin. Now, scientists from the University of Bristol have succeeded in creating artificial muscles and cells, that might someday allow for the same sort of color changes in smart clothing that can camouflage itself against different backgrounds.
The color-changing muscles of squids – along with various fish, reptiles and amphibians – work in unison with specialized cells known as chromatophores. In squids, each of these cells contains a sac, filled with granules of pigment. When the muscles surrounding a chromatophore contract, that colored sac expands, causing it to appear larger to an observer.
Zebrafish, another color-changing animal, take a slightly different approach. Their chromatophores contain a reservoir of liquid pigmentation. When activated, that liquid is pumped through to the skin, where it spreads out like ink.
The U Bristol researchers used dielectric elastomers – soft, stretchy electrically-activated polymers – to create man-made equivalents of both of these systems.
When an electrical current is applied to them, the elastomers themselves expand, creating the same illusion as a squid’s expanding pigment sac. As soon as the current is shut off, they return to their regular state.
To replicate the zebrafish’s process, an artificial cell was created by sandwiching a silicone bladder between two glass microscope slides. Dielectric elastomers were used to create two pumps, one located on either side of the bladder, and connected to it with silicone tubes. One of those pumps is able to send opaque white spirit into the bladder, while the other can pump in a mixture of black ink and water. By alternately activating the two muscle-pumps with an electrical current, the white and black “pigmentations” can displace one another within the bladder, causing it to appear all-white, all-black, or somewhere in between.
“Our artificial chromatophores are both scalable and adaptable and can be made into an artificial compliant skin which can stretch and deform, yet still operate effectively,” said project leader Jonathan Rossiter. “This means they can be used in many environments where conventional 'hard' technologies would be dangerous, for example at the physical interface with humans, such as smart clothing.”
A paper on the research was published today in the journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics.
Switzerland was once a poor country. Only at the end of the 19th century things did begin to change after an economic boom. Then it took just 130 years for the Swiss population to grow from three to eight million.
Population still growing
The number of people living in Switzerland has increased yet again, closing in on the eight million mark in 2011. The country’s permanent resident population reached 7,952,600 last year, up 82,400 or approximately one per cent more than in 2010.
According to provisional data released by the Federal Statistics Office on Thursday, most cantons recorded higher figures except for Appenzell Outer Rhodes and Basel Country, where numbers were stable, and Uri where they were slightly lower.
The number of foreigners living in Switzerland at the end of last year was 1,814,800, or 22.8 per cent of the population, an increase of 48,500.
Switzerland is among a number of European countries including France, Italy and Austria where the population rose last year. Other nations such as Germany however recorded decreasing figures.
Participants from Utah, Arizona, Idaho and elsewhere gathered in a public park to sign a "Declaration of Independence from Mormonism."
"This feels awesome," said Alison Lucas, from West Jordan, Utah, who took part in the rally amid soaring temperatures. "I don't know if I would have had the courage except in a group."
The Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is known for its culture of obedience, and the mass ceremony was a seldom-seen act of collective revolt.
After gathering in the park, participants hiked a half-mile up nearby Ensign Peak, scaled in 1847 by church President Brigham Young to survey the spot where his Latter-day Saints would build a city.
At the top, those gathered gave three loud shouts of "Freedom," cheered, clapped and hugged.
"It's been a hard journey and this is a symbolic end," said event organiser Zilpha Larsen, of Lehi, Utah. "I just hope that it boosts people up and helps them feel more comfortable in their decision."
The church bills itself as the one "true" Christian faith, and its theology promises families eternal relationships among those who remain faithful, sealing those gifts through special religious rites. Among the reasons cited by those resigning are the church's political activism against gay marriage and doctrinal teachings that conflict with scientific findings or are perceived as racist or sexist.
Others cite inconsistencies in the Mormons' explanation of its own history, including the practice of polygamy. The church renounced plural marriage over a century ago as Utah was seeking statehood. Asked about the resignations, a church spokesman said the church loves and respects each member.
"People make their own decisions about the direction they will follow in life," spokesman Michael Purdy said in an email. "While there are very few who take this action, it is sad to see someone choose to leave. We wish them well."
The most recent figures show the Mormon church claims 14.4 million members worldwide. The number of those resigning from the church are not publicly reported.
Among prominent Mormons is Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee facing off against President Barack Obama in November. Should he win office, Romney would be the first Mormon elected to the White House. Some leaving the church Saturday did so with trepidation, as Mormon culture often stigmatises those who fall away, leaving some without social or business connections.
"It's hard, so we have to be very careful," said Robin Hansen, a participant who said she quit over a "culture of abuse" which she believes is cultivated by church teachings promoting obedience. Hansen said her husband had not joined her in leaving the faith because he works in a church-related business and could lose his job if he doesn't maintain his membership.
To resign from the church, Mormons must submit a formal letter asking their names be removed from church rolls, a church instructional handbook for lay leaders published on the internet in 2010 shows.
On Saturday, participants filled a basket with their letters for mailing by Larsen, who split with the church over doubts about the veracity of a translation of ancient Egyptian writings which are included in sacred Mormon texts.
A sixth-generation Mormon, Kris Fielding, 35, travelled from Phoenix for the resignation event in part to represent those who do not yet have the courage to do so, he said, including his wife, who worries about reaction from their families.
Married in a Mormon temple, Mr Fielding said the couples shared disaffection from their faith is tied in part to their local church leader's response to questions Fielding had about polyandry and polygamy – taking multiple husbands and wives – in the early church.
"I went to him looking for a faithful perspective. He called my wife and told her she needed to find a new husband," Mr Fielding said. He said he felt relief after his decision.
"The monkey's off the back ... I don't feel like I have to explain myself or the positions of the church any more."
The undercover journalist who blew the whistle on G4S, the security company responsible for the 2012 Olympics, along with shocking plans for an evacuation of London, has revealed his identity following fears for his safety.
'Lee Hazledean' -- the whistleblower who exposed how he had infiltrated G4S as an employee and uncovered how security preparations for the Olympics were so poor that they were inviting a terrorist attack, has revealed himself to be Ben Fellows, an acclaimed director who has worked with Stanley Kubrick. Fellows has also appeared in numerous popular television and theatre shows.
Fellows made the decision to reveal his identity, after having gone under a pseudonym for the purposes of radio interviews conducted over the last week, because of fears over his safety.
"With all sincerity I'm now afraid that I might be in physical danger from G4S," Fellows told Infowars, adding that he feared the mainstream media was about to launch a character assassination campaign. "My only protection is to go public.... I have done nothing wrong and I stand by everything that I have said," added Fellows.
Fellows also revealed that Andy Davies, Channel 4 News Home Affairs Correspondent, demanded that he retract statements made during a radio interview with BCFM's Friday Drivetime in which Fellows said of Davies, "I sent him an email, I called, he wasn't interested and he said there's a media blackout on this kind of story, that nobody would be interested in running it."
In a telephone conversation provided to Infowars, Davies claims that he never read Fellows' original email and that the two never had a conversation about the issue.
"I emailed Andy Davies on the 13th of June and pitched the story to him, he then called me back and we talked," claims Fellows, who is now going public to offset his concern that his name may have been privately passed to G4S.
Fellows' revelations about how he infiltrated G4S and what he discovered were nothing less than astounding. However, the mainstream media chose to run a whitewash, focusing instead on relatively tame security lapses and ignoring Fellows' story altogether, despite the fact that it had already gone viral in the alternative media. http://www.infowars.com/olympics-whistleblower-fears-for-safety-reveals-ident... by Paul Joseph Watson
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A video has recently exploded on the internet of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates speaking about the potential worldly benefits of veganism. In it, Gates discusses a future in which science will allow the production of vegetarian “meat”.
Gates notes that the product will likely be cheaper, more efficiently produced and better for the planet.
Examining our issue-ridden food system from a business-oriented perspective, it’s interesting that Gates comes to the same conclusion that many ethically-minded vegans and vegetarians come to: eating meat is harming everyone and everything, and a meat-free diet will help the world tremendously.
Ecuador is expected to announce a decision within the next week on whether to grant WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange political asylum. Assange has taken refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy in London in a bid to avoid extradition to Sweden and ultimately, he says, to the United States. On a visit to Ecuador, Assange’s attorney, the Spanish judge Baltazar Garzón, said the British government would have no legal grounds to block Assange’s journey to Ecuador should he be granted asylum.
Baltasar Garzón: "Hypothetically, if asylum is granted, Great Britain can’t say they won’t send him. One can always say no. We are tired of seeing international conventions being breached or not agreed with by different countries. But legally, they can’t do it because Ecuador is a sovereign state, a free, democratic state, exactly like the U.S., nothing more, nothing less."
Source: democracynow.org - A DAILY INDEPENDENT GLOBAL NEWS HOUR - With Amy Goodman & Juan González
Assange, an Australian national, has been holed up in Ecuador’s London embassy since June. Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said it would be “unacceptable” were British police to force their way into the mission.
British authorities have "warned" Ecuador that they could raid its embassy and arrest Julian Assange if he is not handed over. The Ecuadorian Foreign Minister responded by saying such a move would be a "flagrant violation" of international law - READ MORE: http://on.rt.com/mqy04a
RT (Russia Today) is a global news network broadcasting from Moscow and Washington studios. RT is the first news channel to break the 500 million YouTube views benchmark.
The former hacker is wanted for questioning over sexual assault allegations in Sweden, but says he fears deportation to the United States, which may seek to try him for his website’s release of a trove of secret documents.
Patino said Wednesday that Ecuador “has made a decision” on Assange and will announce it Thursday at 7:00 am (1200 GMT). The foreign minister had earlier presented a report on the case to Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa.
Patino rounded on Britain for threatening to take 41-year-old Assange into custody by force, and warned such a move would not be tolerated.
“Today, we received from the United Kingdom an express threat, in writing, that they could storm our embassy if Ecuador does not hand over Julian Assange” the foreign minister told reporters.
“Ecuador rejects in the strongest terms the explicit threat made in Britain’s official communication,” he said.
“The position taken by the government of Great Britain is unacceptable, both from the political and the legal point of view,” the foreign minister said.
He warned that entering the embassy without authorization “would be a flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention” on diplomatic relations.
Assange took refuge at Ecuador’s embassy in London on June 19 to avoid extradition to Sweden, which he claims plans to eventually surrender him to US authorities.
But even if the asylum request is granted, it is unclear whether Assange will be allowed to leave, as British police were waiting outside the embassy ready to arrest him for breaching the terms of his bail granted in 2010.
“The UK has a legal obligation to extradite Mr Assange to Sweden to face questioning over allegations of sexual offences and we remain determined to fulfill this obligation,” a British Foreign Office spokesman said.
Assange had embarked on a marathon round of court battles, but finally exhausted all his options under British law in June when the Supreme Court overturned his appeal against extradition.
Quito had said it was reviewing the sexual misconduct allegations as it weighs his asylum request. Assange maintains he had consensual sex with the alleged Swedish victims.
Correa has said that the mere possibility that Assange could face capital punishment in the United States could be reason enough for his government to grant the activist’s asylum petition.
Assange’s WikiLeaks website infuriated Washington when it released hundreds of thousands of secret war reports from Iraq and Afghanistan and countless US embassy cables containing unguarded and at times embarrassing remarks by a number of world leaders and diplomats.
The leftist Correa has often been at odds with Washington and has expressed support for Assange, offering him asylum as far back as 2010 before later backing off.
Offering shelter to a high-profile figure like Assange — hailed as a whistleblower by his supporters — could help Correa push back against critics who accuse him of clamping down on press freedom.
Britain’s Foreign Office later released a statement saying it hoped a “mutually acceptable” solution could still be found, but warned it would do all it could to extradite Assange.
“We have an obligation to extradite Mr Assange and it is only right that we give Ecuador the full picture,” the spokesman said of the letter sent by Britain to Quito.
“Throughout this process, we have drawn the Ecuadorans’ attention to relevant provisions of our law.”
The law which Britain is threatening to invoke is the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987, which allows it to revoke the diplomatic immunity of an embassy on British soil.
WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson told AFP that the threat to storm the embassy was “extremely serious” and said that the group’s legal team refuted its legality.
Around 10 police were present outside the embassy late Wednesday, according to an AFP reporter, while two were visible inside the lobby itself.
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