If you have watched or read the news today you’re bound to have come across the “Big Bang” experiment. Having been fascinated with astronomy and science, I found it extremely interesting.

The actual experiment took place on the Swiss-French border and included a £5bn machine. One would think this is a huge amount of money but scientists hope for fundamental answers to yet unanswered physics questions.

They fired two beams of particles called protons around the 27km-long tunnel which houses the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The whole thing is supposed to recreate the conditions a few moments after the Big Bang.

The beams have not yet been run continuously. So far, they have been stopped, or “dumped”, after just a few circuits.

By Wednesday evening, engineers hope to inject clockwise and anti-clockwise protons again, but this time they will “close the orbit”, letting the beams run continuously for a few seconds each.

Cern has not yet announced when it plans to carry out the first collisions, but the BBC understands that low-energy collisions could happen in the next few days. This will allow engineers to calibrate instruments, but will not produce data of scientific interest.

From the BBC’s website.

While the Big Bang is still just a theory (and I doubt that we will unlock the secrets of the universe anytime soon), the outcome of this project sounds very exciting perhaps even promising. I will certainly stay tuned!

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If you have been watching the news, you would have heard of the Hybrid Embryo debate.

We’ve all heard how stem cells can help cure diseases. So today is the day when MPs in Britain are voting on whether to allow scientists to continue to carry out controversial stem cell research using those human-animal embryos.

I think anyone who protests against this research is plain ignorant. There are so many people who could benefit from treatment to follow the research.

If there is just a slight possibility that stem cells can cure a number of diseases, then get on with it!

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Remember the army’s miracle powder that helped a guy regrow his fingertip? This kind of reminded of that stuff:

The material consists of naturally occurring amino acids that have been engineered to form peptides that spontaneously cluster together to create long fibers when exposed to salty, aqueous environments, such as those found in the body. The fibers form a mesh that serves as a physical barrier to blood and other fluids.

This new material has been developed by Arch Therapeutics. Pretty amazing I think, but then again, it remains to be seen how well this works.

The first application will be for surgeries and could save plenty of time in critical situation when bleeding needs to be stopped.

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I’m a bit confused. I’ve read tons of articles where scientists, doctors and so called experts tell you how you should restrict calories, eat healthy and avoid being overweight.

Now it looks like people with a big butt may actually have a medical advantage: Apparently the fat around your hips and bottom protects you against diabetes.

Ummmm… OK. According to US researchers:

Subcutaneous fat, or fat that collects under the skin, helped to improve sensitivity to the hormone insulin, which regulates blood sugar.

Mice that got transplants of this type of fat deep into their abdomens lost weight and their fat cells shrank, even though they made no changes in their diet or activity levels.

“It was a surprising result,” said Dr. Ronald Kahn of Harvard Medical School in Boston, whose study appears in the journal Cell Metabolism. “We actually found it had a beneficial effect, and it was especially true when you put it inside the abdomen,” Kahn said in a telephone interview.

I wonder how well this will go down with health freaks. I’m normally not very concerned about my butt but I don’t think I’d put on extra pounds.

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I purchased a relaxation album quite a while ago. It was mainly dolphins and whales “singing”… and indeed, I found it to be quite relaxing.

Turns out that other fish can be quite noisy as well and it seems as though the ocean isn’t all peace and quiet.

The New York times compiled a list of several fish and the noises they make. Very interesting. Amongst them the toad fish humming, the Herring “communicating” out of their anus and the Cusk Eel rattling it’s bones.

I’m not sure whether you could meditate to these sounds.

Here’s the Link

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