Heavens

Researchers used the PVC method to produce the first high-quality BNNTs that are long enough to be spun into macroscopic yarn, in this case centimeters long. A cotton-like mass of nanotubes was finger-twisted into a yarn about one millimeter wide, indicating that the nanotubes themselves are about one millimeter long.

Every cook knows the ingredients for making bread: flour, water, yeast, and time. But what chemical elements are in the recipe of our universe?

Most of the ingredients are hydrogen and helium. These cosmic lightweights fill the first two spots on the famous periodic table of the elements.

Less abundant but more familiar to us are the heavier elements, meaning everything listed on the periodic table after hydrogen and helium. These building blocks, such as iron and other metals, can be found in many of the objects in our daily lives, from teddy bears to teapots.

Bethesda, MD (Dec. 1, 2009) — The combination of sigmoidoscopy and fecal immunochemical test (FIT) detects advanced proximal (right-sided) tumors better than either test alone, according to a new study in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute. African Americans, the elderly and women have a higher incidence of proximal colon tumors.

Berkeley, CA – An extraordinarily bright, extraordinarily long-lasting supernova named SN 2007bi, snagged in a search by a robotic telescope, turns out to be the first example of the kind of stars that first populated the Universe. The superbright supernova occurred in a nearby dwarf galaxy, a kind of galaxy that's common but has been little studied until now, and the unusual supernova could be the first of many such events soon to be discovered.

Researchers of the University of Granada have developed an intelligent engine searcher to catalogue the documentary collections of the Andalusian Parliament. This prototype, so called SEDA, is an information recovery system for structured documents, based on artificial intelligence techniques, to search and recover documents belonging to the Parliamentary Report and the Official Gazette of the Andalusian Parliament.

Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) engineers have completed all environmental and performance testing on the TacSat-4 COMMx payload. This completes the entire TacSat-4 spacecraft as the spacecraft bus was completed in May 2008. The launch date was fall 2009, however it was moved to August 2010 because of Minotaur-IV technical issues and changing DoD mission priorities.

December 1, 2009: OptiNose is pleased to announce the publication of results from its Phase II clinical study investigating the efficacy and tolerability of its novel, intranasal drug/device product for the topical treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps in Rhinology, the official journal of the International and European Rhinologic Societies.

Nida is battling to keep its typhoon strength in the Western Pacific Ocean as wind shear continues to tear at the storm and weaken it. NASA's CloudSat satellite noticed that Nida's cloud tops are not as high as they were over the weekend, and lower cloud tops mean less powerful thunderstorms.

Over the last few days, satellites have shown forecasters that Nida has zigzagged between 18 and 20 degrees North Latitude on its somewhat erratic northern track. It has moved west, then east, and now back in a westward direction on its general track north.

On Earth, we tend to find dust nothing more than a nuisance that blankets our furniture and causes us to sneeze. Cosmic dust can also be a hindrance to astronomers because cameras using visible light cannot see through it. However, studying cosmic dust in detail helps astronomers to pin down the ingredients of the raw mixture that eventually gives birth to stars.

The latest data delivered back to Earth by the Herschel Space Observatory (HSO)—launched in May by the European Space Agency—has opened a new window on galaxies for researchers at McMaster University.

Herschel, the largest infrared telescope ever launched, is designed to study some of the coldest objects in space, located deep in a region of the electromagnetic spectrum that is still largely unexplored.

A huge amount of scientific data have been accumulated by the CE-1 lunar orbiter. Using laser altimeter data, Jinsong Ping and Qian Huang et al obtained improved 3D lunar topography, and based on this, they had made new discoveries (such as impact basins and volcanic deposit highlands) of some ancient topographic characteristics on the lunar surface.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – New discoveries have been made about how an elevated level of lead, which is a neurotoxic heavy metal, can slow the progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease – findings that could point the way to a new type of therapy.

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite named GOES-14, is being placed in on-orbit storage this month to await its call to duty.

"The 'chicken and egg' question of whether a galaxy or its black hole comes first is one of the most debated subjects in astrophysics today," says lead author David Elbaz. "Our study suggests that supermassive black holes can trigger the formation of stars, thus 'building' their own host galaxies. This link could also explain why galaxies hosting larger black holes have more stars."

Nida is still holding on to Super Typhoon status in the Western Pacific Ocean, and over the weekend, is forecast to pass east of both Iwo To and Chichi Jima islands. Although the center of Nida will remain at sea, both islands will face heavy surf, gusty winds and heavy rainfall.