Supernovae are exploding stars, which happen when heavy stars (weighing larger than 1.4 times the mass of our Sun) at the end of their life cycle shed their outer layers in a gigantic explosion. In many ways, it can be compared to a nuclear explosion, whose power is such that the atoms in the exploding gas fuse to form heavier-than-iron metals (Gold, Silver, Platinum, etc.) and other minerals as well. It is theorized that our own solar system might owe its existence to such an explosion, since we have such large amounts of heavy metals in our solar system:).

Mineral Olivine from Supernova! (Courtesy: Johnson Space Center)Now a team of scientists from NASA and University of Arizona have discovered minerals that were formed in such a supernova explosion!! The grains were among other extraterrestrial dust plucked by high-flying NASA research aircraft from Earth's upper atmosphere after they were delivered to Earth by a comet or primitive asteroid:D:D.
It is the first time anyone has ever discovered silicate grains, in this case Olivine (a Magnesium-Iron Silicate), from a supernova. They reveal important new information on how much material supernovae contributed to making our sun and planets, including radioactive material used in isotope age-dating techniques. The discovery also gives astrophysicists important new physical evidence they need to verify complex numerical models of supernovae explosions.
A new kind of ion microprobe called the NanoSIMS was used to measure Oxygen isotopes in the unusual grains obtained by a high-flying spacecraft. Olivine is very common in the solar system (and is found both on Earth and on Mars, and in comets and asteroids); but these grains of Olivine have oxygen isotope content seen only in theoretical models of supernova explosions. The grains are often formed when the gas cools after a supernova explosion of a star 15 times as massive as the Sun:):).
Thus, this finding provides further proof that our solar system was formed after a supernova explosion of a star 15 times as massive as Sun about 4.5 Billion Years ago... scientists will now try to find this supernova remnant (the core that is left behind after the explosion), which undoubtedly will be a Black Hole, or a White Dwarf, and perhaps thousands of light years away from us:):).

Everyone who has ever ridden a bike knows how heavy a bike can be, and this is a pain, especially when climbing up hills or mountains :(. Now the Swiss manufacturer BMC has designed a Carbon-NanoTube-based bike, which weighs less than a kilogram (about 2.2 pounds)!! In this year’s Tour de France, cyclists from the Phonak Team will use such bikes:).

BMC Pro Machine NanoTube-Bike (Courtesy: BMC)To create the frame, BMC used a composite technology developed by US sports equipment specialist Easton. The company's Enhanced Resin System embeds carbon fibre in a resin matrix that's reinforced with carbon nanotubes.
Carbon nanotubes are an array of carbon atoms arranged in a pattern of hexagons and pentagons (similar to the pattern found on soccer balls). These structures can be manufactured in tubular shapes one billionth of a meter in diameter, hence the name nanotube. These tubes are the strongest man-made fibers, 100s of times stronger than steel, yet lighter:):).
Soon we might see more applications of nanotubes in other areas of transportation. I am looking forward to the day when there will be a car with Carbon-NanoTube chassis, running on fuel-cells, and fully computerized. Surely I can then turn on my favorite music, close my eyes, and enjoy the ride?:D:D... the car can do the driving:).

The world's largest telescope is currently being built in Steward Observatory, Arizona. The first (and the most critical) component of the telescope is to be casted soon; 8.4 meter diameter mirrors, which will more than quadruple the power of today's best observatories:):). The mirror will be created by pouring liquid glass onto a huge mold, the last of whose 1,681 ceramic fiber cores was recently added.

Installing the core (Courtesy: University of Arizona)
The mirror is for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), which when completed will have seven of such large mirrors! The mirrors will give GMT four-and-one-half times the collecting area of any current optical telescope and the resolving power of a 25.6-meter (84-foot) diameter telescope, or 10 times the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope:):).
Obviously, to build such a large, blemish-free mirror is a Herculean task. The Mirror Lab will start heating the furnace July 18, 2005. It takes six days for the glass to reach peak temperature at 2150 ºF (1178 ºC). At this temperature, the glass begins to flow like honey at room temperature. The thick liquid glass flows between the hexagonal cores in the mold to create a honeycomb structure. The oven's rotation rate determines the depth of the curve spun into the shape of the mirror, or the mirror's focal length. The whole process will take 11-12 weeks.
The GMT is slated for completion in 2016 at a site in northern Chile. With its powerful resolution and enormous collecting area, the GMT will be used to detect extrasolar planets, understanding the formation and evolution of galaxies, probing dark matter and dark energy, finding the link between black holes and galactic bulges, and so on and on:).

A Japanese research team has discovered part of a mural painting in the ruins of the colossal stone Buddha statues in Bamiyan, central Afghanistan, that were destroyed by the country's former Taliban rulers. The mural was found in a small cave carved into a cliff on the eastern side of the statues, according to team leader Kazuya Yamauchi, chief researcher of the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties of Tokyo. The painting, made on the dome-shaped roof of the cave measuring 2. 5 meters across, appears to be of the torso of a Buddha:).

The Mural (Courtesy: UNESCO)Patches of a vivid blue pattern made with lapis lazuli are all that remain of the painting, which is thought to have originally been of several Buddha images radiating outward from the center of the roof. The cave is likely to have fallen in on itself, and as a result the overall shape of the painting is obscured by rocks that have accumulated inside.
Dye characteristics date the mural to the sixth or seventh century, the golden age of Buddhist culture at Bamiyan:).

Why cannot we tickle ourselves? It seems that the brain ignores unimportant sensations, such as your own arm touching your belly, so that it can focus on more important stimuli (especially for people like KL), like a cockroach sitting on your neck;). A recent study detailed in the latest issue of the journal Current Biology confirms the results obtained by earlier researchers studying this question.

Tickle Tickle! (Courtesy: Association For Pastoral Care)In the study, 30 people used a finger on their right hand to touch a finger on their left hand by tapping a device place directly over the left finger and could instantly relay the tap. The computer-controlled device could introduce delays of varying length before the left finger was tapped. Researchers used another button to introduce externally generated taps. Result: when the brain was expecting the tap, it noticed it less :).
It confirms the theory that the brain is constantly predicting what is going to happen, and what sensations it is about to receive. It behaves so, because the information that our senses get are always a little out-of-date, and the brain has to extrapolate to get the most probable information. For example, when a ball is thrown at us, we predict where the ball would be in the next second, and our hands get prepared to catch it in that position!
So next time I meet you people (you know who you are!), get ready for some really awesome tickling :D:D.

A huge milestone in modern science will be achieved if we could master controlled fusion reactions. This is the same reaction that powers the Sun, combining four Hydrogen atoms into one Helium atom, and releasing huge amounts of energy in the process. For example, a thimbleful of liquid Hydrogen fuel could produce as much energy as 20 tons of coal!! Moreover, with fossil fules (coal, petroleum) depleting at a high rate, and their mining becoming harder and more expensive, it makes sense to invest in fusion technologies.
With this in mind, a consortium of six (China, EU, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the USA) have finally decided to attempt to build a experimental fusion reactor called ITER in Cadarache in the south of France.

Tokamak Diagram (Courtesy: MIT)ITER stands for International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. It will use magnetic fields generated by superconducting coils to confine a plasma of Deuterium and Tritium in a donut-shaped chamber called a Tokamak (short for toroidalnya kamera ee magnetnaya katushka - torus-shaped magnetic chamber, first designed by Soviet physicists Andrei Sakharov and Igor Tamm in 1951). The plasma will be heated to millions of degrees, and confined by the powerful magnets so that it does not escape. At such high temperatures, Deuterium and Tritium would overcome their mutual repulsion, and fuse to form Helium and release energy in the process.
ITER is designed to produce 500 MW of power and to demonstrate that it is feasible to generate power from fusion. Construction of ITER should start by the end of this year and should be complete by 2015. Cadarache is already home to Tore Supra, currently the world's largest superconducting tokamak, and some 500 fusion scientists, engineers and technicians, plus another 4000 staff working in other areas. The Cadarache lab, which is close to Marseille, is run by the CEA (French Atomic Energy Commission).
Hopefully, we will see practical applications of this endeavor in our lifetimes :).

This news is Courtesy Gindy.
What if it were possible to live forever? Recent steps by scientists at Safar Centre for Resuscitation Research at University of Pittsburgh have perhaps made this a possibility. The scientists have created zombie dogs, reanimating the canines after several hours of clinical death in attempts to develop suspended animation for humans.

Dead For Two Hours! (Courtesy: Safar Centre)The dogs were reanimated three hours after their clinical death. The technique involves draining the veins of blood, and replacing it with ice-cold salt solution. The body temperature drops to 7C, enough to induce a state of hypothermia. There is no heartbeat, or brain activity. But when the blood is replaced, the heart restarted with an electric shock and a dose of 100% oxygen is administered, the dogs are brought back to life!!
According to the center, plans to test it on humans should materialize within a year. Other than possible immortality applications, this technique could help save lives on the battlefield, or other critically injured patients. It might also help save patients waiting for organ transplants. Another application is in repairing critical blood vessels; currently, doctors must repair the vessels under a time pressure, as lack of blood would otherwise damage organs that are fed blood through the vessel under repair. During this induced hypothermia, there is no such limitation, as the organs are perfectly preserved:).
Immortality anyone?! ;);).