Guest: Emma Ryan-Weber, Swinburne University, 2009 Fresh Scientist.
Emma told us about the “earliest stardust de-fogging the universe”. She is part of an international team of astronomers that has discovered the oldest and most distant carbon in the Universe. But there’s not enough of it to support standard theories of how the Universe lit up, a member from Swinburne University of Technology has calculated.
In the early Universe a dark pervasive fog of neutral hydrogen gas lurked everywhere. Astronomers think that this fog cleared when the first stars formed and emitted light. There is a close connection between the amount of light and carbon produced in stars. But adding up all the 13-billion-year-old carbon detected, Emma and her collaborators came to the conclusion the amount of carbon, and therefore the number of massive stars, was insufficient to lift the fog.
Eight scientists who became their own guinea pigs — Here are eight extraordinary (and occasionally disgusting) stories of medical self-experimentation. Experimenting on yourself very rarely leads to scientific glory – it’s much more likely to result in swift admission to the casualty ward, or even to the morgue. So New Scientist doesn’t recommend you try these experiments on yourself, or anyone else for that matter. (New Scientist)
The first pluripotent stem cells from pigs — The discovery that adult skin cells can be ‘reprogrammed’ to behave like stem cells has been a major scientific boon, providing a way to tap the potential of embryonic stem cells without the associated ethical quandaries. Researchers have now created a line of such reprogrammed stem cells from adult pigs. As pigs are large animals with a physiology very similar to humans, this work provides a valuable model to study the therapeutic potential of this new “induced pluripotent stem cell” (iPS) technology. (ScienceDaily - here and here)
Snake scale friction — Snakes use both friction generated by their scales and redistribution of their weight to slither along flat surfaces, researchers at New York University and the Georgia Institute of Technology have found. Their findings, which appear in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, run counter to previous studies that have shown snakes move by pushing laterally against rocks and branches. (ScienceDaily)
NASA’s first missions to Earth’s Moon in 10 years — The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is scheduled to orbit and better map the Moon, search for buried and hidden ice, and return many high resolution images. Some images will be below one-meter in resolution and include images of historic Apollo landing sites. Exploratory data and images should allow a more informed choice of possible future astronaut landing sites. The Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) is scheduled to monitor the controlled impact of the rocket’s upper stage into a permanently shadowed crater near the Moon’s south pole. This impact, which should occur in about three months, might be visible on Earth through small telescopes. (Astronomy Picture of the Day)
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Direct podcast download: Einstein-A-Go-Go-20090621.mp3
Tags: Fresh Scientist, iPS cells
