Your R136a1 is so fat...

Any regular news readers would have been hard-pressed to miss the news that the largest star to date has been discovered, our new friend, R136a1. Using the ESO Very Large Telescope and archival Hubble data, researchers at the University of Sheffield isolated a star that is 265 times the mass of the Sun, a million times brighter and a birthweight about 320 times the Sun's.

Paul Crowther, Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Sheffield studied two young clusters of stars, NGC 3603 and RMC 136a, both clusters of young, hot, massive stars. The interesting thing about this is that this discovery completely dwarfs previous knowledge that stars were limited in their mass by about 150 times the mass of the Sun. Within R136, only four stars weighed more than 150 solar masses at birth, yet they account for nearly half of the wind and radiation power of the entire cluster, comprising approximately 100 000 stars in total.



Comparing R1361a to the Sun, the brightness is about the difference between the Sun and the full moon. Imagine now that we simply replaced the Sun with R136a1, “Its high mass would reduce the length of the Earth's year to three weeks, and it would bathe the Earth in incredibly intense ultraviolet radiation, rendering life on our planet impossible,” says team-member Raphael Hirschi from Keele University.The relative sizes of different stellar classifications are shown below:



The important thing to take away from this discovery is that this is simply the dynamics of scientific research. In the same way the Kuiper Belt forced us to redefine our Solar System and Pluto's classification, this forces us to redefine our understanding of stellar evolution and dynamics. I am inclined to agree with astronomer royal Martin Rees (who can't? With such stellar *ahem* eyes and a devil-may-care smirk...) in his assessment that this is a cool discovery and it's great that it involves UK science and advanced telescopes, but it is not Earth-shattering. It just makes us appreciate the ever-changing understanding of the universe around us.

Choose your own adventure: The infinite washing loop

It's 10pm. You have a load of laundry in the washer. It is taking a disturbingly long time. Instead of ignoring it, you start to listen. *click* bzzzz *click* bzzzz *click* bzzzz... Running over to investigate, you discover that instead of the high-speed cycle where the machine centrifuges most of the water away, it is starting over! Do you: A Leave it alone to see if it finishes itself? or B. Ctrl-C the infinite loop?

_______

If you chose A: The cycle continues for another hour. Go back to the beginning.

If you chose B: You Ctrl-C the process any way you know how. Cutting off the power. Forcing it to the end of the cycle. Nothing works. The hatch won't unlock. The cycle begins again. Now you can A. Let it continue. or B. Force quit with kill -9 and live with the consequences.

_______

If you chose A: The cycle continues again. Your clothes are ruined. The End.

If you chose B: You force open the hatch with a series of power cuts, cycle adjustments and button-unlocking; a sequence no monkey can repeat, you've tried. The hatch eventually opens and you are faced with a pile of sopping, dripping wet, half-ruined clothes. You can: A. Close the door, lock it, start a cycle and become deeply religious. Or B. Take out the clothes, dashed be the results!

_______

If you chose A: The washer explodes and you die in a fireball of wet clothes (I'm betting...didn't want to risk it) The End.

If you chose B: You hang up the clothes, put a towel underneath them. Try to sleep to the sound of dripping water and hope the humidity does not result in an infestation of midges in your room. The End.


Erin's cycle: ABBB. Come over and see how your clothes end up! See if you can translate kill -9 to washer-speak in the same way I managed!

In the infinite words of Professor Farnsworth: 'She's stuck in an infinite loop and he's an idiot!' ... now to sleep, perchance to dream.

Why the Sb exodus brought me here

ScienceBlogs is suffering a mass exodus. This is being widely covered in the blogosphere, from Bora Zivkovic just announcing his exit and PZ Myers dutifully covering the exodus as well. It really is a shame to see and a perfect example of Bion's Effect as pointed out in Bora's post. It is very much a load of people at an awesome, rockin' science party (because we all know what those are like...seriously... no seriously. Have you been? They're awesome. Drinking and discussions of FTL drives) who have decided that it's no longer that fun and every one is getting their coats to leave. That is precisely what is happening.

Now, most of the blogs out there being written on this exodus are written by renowned, long-lasting science writers. I have decided to throw my opinion into the ring because, as opposed to most out there, instead of looking for a change of venue, or a new perspective, I have decided to start out, fresh and new in the world of Science Blogging. I kept a blog to cover my first year living overseas, so I am no stranger to the blogosphere. However, the coverage of ScienceBlogs forced me to seriously look at this field as a viable and interesting world for me to enter.

I am a physicist, which is already pretty rare in the world. Not only that, but I am also a female physicist; which is even more rare, though the situation is improving. I am a PhD student, so I am starting out in this career path, seeing the world of academia as well as my own field, with fresh eyes. I feel like this leaves me with something to share with the world. Female physicists are also not usually heavily tattooed...hmm...I should work out my statistical position in the world. Maybe this weekend.

The point is, folks, there are a lot of incredibly intelligent people out there who have had enough of one science party and are floating down the streets, trying to hail a cab and find a rockin' after-party. I will continue to link to their own personal blogs, wherever they decide to end up. It seems like it would have been a fun party, and I hope they continue on.

I have not been blogging for as long as others, and I certainly am not experienced in the world of science blogging. I hope that this community can keep the raucous discourse going to encourage more people to step on board. There are some pretty talented people out there, and I may or may not be one of them, but I would like to give it a try. I encourage you to do so as well. Let us learn together!

See? It's not all bad. This has brought me, and probably more, to the world of science blogging, knowing that the doors are open and the bouncers have left!

Gravity's Whispers -- A story

Here is a quick link to a story published in Nature: Enjoy!


Gravity's Whispers

Heffington Post

Right, so I have disappeared for a while. I was in desperate need to get away from the city, away from work and away from people. What better than a 3-day weekend? Thank you, Glasgow, for treating me to such an event! A day in Glencoe, a day riding horses on the Scottish coastline and a day in front of the telly; mind is back on track.

However, I did get into work this morning and see a post on Pharyngula about a new candidate for Governor for Kansas, Joan Farr Heffington It causes me much distress to link to her page, and I warn you, her picture will haunt your eyeballs. Though I no longer live in America, I am a little tied to it, and I really would like my friends and family to lead a happy existence. This is not going to be achieved by sending a theocratic politician like Heffington to such a high level of power. She even lays out her goals on her website bulleted by crosses. Really? Have some semblance of conformity to the whole 'separation of church and state'. There are four references to Christianity on her one and only page. I am respectfully (though not deservedly) ignoring each little bullet point cross.

I know the people who read this have little or no connection to Kansas, but be afraid, be very afraid. We do not want her near policy. I am tired of people letting their neighbouring states do as they please, not thinking it is going to affect their lifestyle. A good example of this is the infamous Texas Board of Education Curriculum. (Holy Cuchulain! They have a link to 'Bible Literacy'! *slams forehead on desk*) When the discussion began, a lot of people rolled their eyes and went 'Oh, Texas' until they realised the little details, like how California buys a lot of their textbooks from Texas. See? It's this whole thing called a nation. We cannot escape it.

The point is, folks, we need to keep science in schools, moderated GM produce, funding for scientific research (yes, even the controversial stuff) and other knowns and unknowns that will advance our society. Heffington wants to "Require that a Biblical and Constitutional reason exist for the passage of any new laws" -- yikes. Think about that for a second. Yeah, so you agree with me, right? That's correct, bye bye science.

I hope she is not a serious candidate. She is currently running in the Republican primary to be held on 3 August. I am pretty sure her face is as contrived as her respect for the United States. Do not elect that face. Do not let this plague spread through to Washington.

Star Wars Subway Car

This is not always going to be exactly science, but science-like things. Who out there doesn't love "Star Wars"? This is an absolutely epic enactment and worth a watch for a laugh. Makes me want to dig out my Leia costume and go ride the subway for a while, evading the Imperial Troopers. That's not weird, right?

Ode to a lost Futurama

Oh, Futurama, what has happened to you?

You used to be clever, honest and true

After years of our begging we got you back

Just to see scripts that seriously lacked

MomCo as Apple? Really, give me a break

Bender and Amy? Please man, I just ate

Where is the science? The nerd jokes? The fun?

Did all of your writers suddenly run?

Jokes about photons, wire drawers and Trek

Have now been replaced with nothing but sex

Zapp was awesome when he was just Kirk

But now he's just gross and your everyday jerk

Kif and Amy once gave hope to the scrawny

Now she's not pleased unless he is brawny

It was a great balance, catered to every man

"Bite my shiny metal ass" while drinking Olde Fortran

I want Bender again to be frightened of twos

And Fry to want Leela, though he knows he will lose

We loved the quantum finish and the Aleph-null-plex

And what about Gore, Nichelle, Hawking and Gygax?

Nibbler and Zoidberg, Hermes and Scruffy

Your characters were epic and terribly funny

Who didn't love Flexo with Star Trek to mock?

You gave us back Nimoy, who was more than just Spock

Maybe the writers want this time to stay

So they're changing the humour, leaving nerds in dismay

Without nerd support, you wouldn't be here

We cried out for more but you've left us in tears

I know we are few but we do still exist

Desperately wanting more than just pish

I know it's a risk to leave us in the dust

The general public might find it a must

I'm saddened and sick by your lack of tact

Maybe it's true; we can never go back

Time to say goodbye to the lads in 3k

Maybe when we're there, it'll all be okay.

SHOCK! Particle rumour denied

*Gasp* Sit down, this one is really going to blow your mind. A blogger made something up?! Say it ain't so!! My faith in the webertubes is shattered!

Apparently some Italian particle physicist started a rumour on his blog that the Tevatron accelerator discovered evidence for the ever-elusive Higgs Boson.

Fermilab denied the rumours on their twitter page (also a trustworthy source) that the rumours are just from a fame-seeking blogger. Shame he got a news article as well. But really, people, this is what happens in the future world made up of a "series of tubes". We get things like rumours and the massive, impressive ability to link to lots of places!

I do love the fact that a rumour like this can spread though; much better than the rumours than take hold like Jeff Goldblum falling off a cliff. It shows that the general public are actually interested in the Higgs Boson, or have at least been convinced that they should be. Just add "God" to the start of anything and the American public will jump on it. If Americans jump on it, then surely it is newsworthy, right? Don't get me wrong, I think the media fascination with this subject has taught the public a very important lesson in the world of science which is it takes a freaking long time. There is *gasp* DATA to analyse. Funny that. Sounds like scientists are not keen to just jump on a discovery. We have been well-trained since the days of Joseph Weber to not jump on a possible detection, straight for a claim like a submarine bomber looking for a radar signal (if you know the story of Weber, I promise that is a very clever simile!)... maybe a little too well-trained in hesitancy, but hesitant nonetheless. What can I say? We just like checking and double-checking our numbers before making a claim. It is going to take some time. If we don't, I promise scientists are going to look more foolish than they will if they just make the public wait.

Guide to patching a git

Right, I do not know if any of you out there are programmers, but here is a little tip I have picked up today as it was very difficult to glean from the massive amounts of online tips. This is the problem when you venture into the world of 'advanced' programming, people fail to write simple solutions when there are so many fancy options out there.

In my field, we use Git to share and update files. If I update a file in our group that is on our git repository, I have to submit patches for review before pushing. This post is how to edit and create a patch for review. I am assuming that you already have a git repository cloned and you are editing from there on your 'master' branch. Now, I am not a great user of git, nor is this elegant or even possibly correct. This is just what I do and it seems to not break things. You have been warned...

STOP! Do not edit on your master branch. It is scary and people yell at you and the general order of things descends into chaos. Instead, execute the following (don't type the '$', that's just to show it's on a command line)

$ git branch -b editbranch

This will create and switch to a new branch called editbranch that you can play with and destroy at your freedom and leisure. Feel free to call it whatever you please, such as filebin, trashsector, development (non-exciting choice that I went with...with the sequel, development2 when I screwed up the development branch...shut up! I'm not creative when the possibility of breaking a computer is in front of me) or xwing or tiefighter (those'll be my next ones).

You can switch between branches by doing
$ git checkout master #this is your default branch
$ git checkout tiefighter #this is where you edit things

Now edit your file with your preferred text-editor of the day. I prefer a large helping of emacs with a touch of vim if I'm feeling saucy.

$ emacs filename.c

play play, compile, break, delete, play, edit, compile, break, fix, compile, delete, fix, compile, success! (You know the game of which I speak)

Now that you have a new version of a file on your git repository, it is time to do the scary scary sin of COMMITTING. All you commitment-phobes out there better suck it up and get ready to take the plunge. Type

$ git branch

to make sure you're in your development branch. Type

$ git branch

again, just to make sure... you should see a return like this:

$ git branch
master
tiefighter *

the asterix means that's your working branch. This is correct. If the asterix is instead next to your master branch, you are monkey-screwed up a wall of fleas. You have edited in your master branch.At this point, a point where I have been many times, I copy over my changed file to somewhere safe, reload git or copy a clean, unedited file into that directory, then switch to git using

$ git checkout tiefighter
and paste the edited copy back onto that
$ cp /home/safedirectory/changedfiles/filename.c .

It's not clean or happy, but it happens a lot and that's the best way I have found to fix it.
Now that you are sure you have made the changes in your editing branch, execute:

$ git commit -m "This is where I briefly describe the changes" filename.c

You will see lots of help files where $ git commit -a is suggested, this means you commit all your files that could be changed. I stay away from this because I like more control on the situation.

Now you want to create a patch file. This is basically a text file that clearly lays out all the insertions and deletions you made to the file. It is really handy, especially if you want a record of what you have done, or if you want someone else to look at your changes. This is created by doing

$ git format-patch origin

where origin calls back to the original committed files and compares the two. This creates a patch in your directory called "0001-This-is-where-I-briefly-describe-the-changes.patch". Now you look at the patch with something as simple as

$ more 0001-This-is-where-I-briefly-describe-the-changes.patch

Oops! You will inevitably see a mistake...maybe you'll see a changed line where it is now a comment; something you meant to delete before you committed. This happens to me far too much to be dignified. So you go back to the file:

$ emacs filename.c
edit, delete, compile, hooray!

Now if you execute the same commands from above

$ git commit -m "This is where I briefly describe the changes" filename.c
$ git format-patch origin

it will result in a second file, 0002-This-is-where-I-briefly-describe-the-changes.patch with only the minimal deletion or change. I prefer to have all my edits and changes in one single .patch file. This is how that is done. Execute:

$ git log filename.c

This will show you all the recent committed changes, including your past 2+ ones. It will look something like this:
commit #x####xxx###x#x#x##xxx###x#x#x##xxxx##
Author: His Holiness
Date: Wed Jan 14 04:27:17 2110 +0100

This is where I briefly describe the changes

commit #x####xxx####x#x##xxx###x#x###xxxx####
Author: His Holiness
Date: Wed Jan 14 04:25:17 2110 +0100

This is where I briefly describe the changes

commit #x##x#xxxx#x#x####xxx#x##x#x###xxxx####
Author: Someone smarter than me
Date: Tue Dec 25 08:30:05 1013 +0100

This is where I did AMAZING things to this file

And you want to create a patch from the last change (not yours, you Holiness) where someone smarter than you made some really amazing changes. Here is what you do so you don't have multiple patches:

$ git diff -p #x##x#xxxx#x#x####xxx#x##x#x###xxxx####[the number from commit on the smarter one] filename.c > 0001_new-patch-whatever-I-want-to-call-it.patch

There you go! There is a new patch with all your amazing (hopefully, pending review) changes that you can email to others for checking. Good luck!

Next time, in the world of Git: We look at how to do the dreaded push. Stay tuned for whenever my new patch is approved and I have to figure this all out again! (I really need to start writing stuff down)

Gravity in HD!

Check out this sweet, new, glorious map of the Earth!:



Yes, that is correct, you are seeing GRAVITY! When I go to explain my PhD to people, it usually results in them just saying 'So you're trying to find gravity, right?' Well, sort of. But in a wavy, gravy sort of form. This GOCE satellite from the European Space Agency has mapped out the gravitational field of the Earth. This is a little tricky of a map to figure out, especially as there are positive values on the scale. This does NOT mean that when you go to Papua New Guinea, this happens (copyright Bill Watterson):



Instead, the way they describe it on the satellite homepage is that GOCE acts like a spirit level, you know, those ones you have in your house that you played with as a kid to watch bubbles float around? You didn't do that? Oh, okay. Anyway, I am sure you have seen or used these before. The last time I used one properly was trying to install a dishwasher at my ex-boyfriend's house. Try installing a dishwasher without one. Just try it. And then... put it on SUPERWASH and see how many dishes you can break. I bet it makes one hell of a racket. Probably more impressive than my washing machine on hi-spin. Sounds like a rocket engine taking off.
Anecdotes aside, you know what I am talking about. This thing:


This satellite is basically a giant one of these. They have sensitive balls (tee hee) along the satellite that respond to gravitational pull, marking high points and low points. The satellite apparently was supersensitive to any moving parts, so the whole thing is a measuring device. The balls in the machine had to be in effective free-fall to get the readings as well, which is obtained by orbiting Earth (think about it... throw a ball really fast, straight away from you, now since the Earth curves, the ball falls to the ground like normal, but then the ground has fallen away so the ball just keeps falling as it keeps moving horizontally at that speed...crazy, I know) So...yeah, that is how this works.

I am not quite sure of the scientific uses for this. They say that it will be useful information for lots of geological sciences, which I can sort of see, precision is always nice. Plus, this epic map was only two months worth of data, so it is pretty impressive in it's efficiency. They also use the age-old academic reasoning that lots of people in the *ahem* gravitational world use and that is "but it's the TECHNOLOGY! Look at all the cool, supersensitive technology we have developed!" This is valid and widely used reasoning for high-precision science that may not have super-exciting applications just yet. Seriously, you never know when you will need the technology or when the data will be applicable. Pretty picture though, right? Yay, gravity.

Edit: As was pointed out by my esteemed friend, DAstronomer, where the bloody hell are the units on that thing? I assumed the 'level' plot was just a scaled factor, made-up unit thingy. Okay, but seriously, latitude and longitude people! Maybe geophysicists have their own secret unit language.

Lutitia: BIRTH SURVIVOR?

The European Space Agency has revealed images from their Rosetta mission of Asteroid Lutitia. Badass. They got as close as 3162 km, which is just under 2000 miles, which thanks to The Pretenders, we know is very far in the snow, where he's gone. The Pretenders aside, this is pretty cool. Here is the image of the asteroid:


There is also a great simulation video at the ESA Rosetta website to watch.

So, what does this all mean? How is this science? What do we learn? Is this just a futile competition between space agencies saying 'My spaceship did cooler things than your spaceship!'? NO! There are many things we can learn, and plus, as is ever the study of space, it is pretty freaking cool. Here, you can see how close they actually get:



This image shows what seems like a landslide. Pretty epic, eh? The camera they used for these pictures has a 60m resolution at it's closest point to the asteroid. This means that if two objects are more than 60m apart, the camera can tell the difference. Kind of when you see a speck of dust and you get really close, but it turns out it's actually TWO sneaky specks of dust. Do you not spend your time investigating the spectral resolution of dust on your desk? Fine. But, now you will. Or you will at least now see a speck of dust and say 'The resolution of my eyes can only say it is one piece of dust'. You will. Trust me.

The scientists working on this object say that they think it is very old. Seeing all the craters on the surface is a good indication that it has been around for a while. It also does not have the visual characteristics of a young, iron-rich surface which would indicate a different source. This asteroid has been known for a while and has been studied from the ground, but the evidence from these studies has not given a clear picture.

That means that further study of the asteroid can again give clues towards it's source and the evolution of the Solar System. Rosetta has many instruments on it to collect data. One, for example, can collect dust floating around the asteroid and bring it back for study. If that was successful, we will not know until the instrument returns, but it'd be pretty sweet, no?

Rosetta is not done yet, oh no. ESA is going to stretch this instrument like a nice piece of Taffy. This is not even it's main mission, oh no, this was just a pit-stop on the road of scientific discovery. Rosetta is flying on to rendez-vous with the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It is going to fly alongside the comet for a timescale of months, saying 'Please be my friend. Please give me cool things to take home and show my mum! Please? Please? Please?' It is even sending a probe in 2014 (when it meets up) to land on the main part of the comet (the 'nucleus'). We shall all have to wait with baited breath for the next, um, 4-ish years, and see what Rosetta will have to brag about.

Al Gore speaks out

Al Gore just posted in his blog about the Politicisation of Science. He very rightly condemns the witch hunt going on in politics towards climate scientists. Worth a read.

"Psychic" Cephalopod

Okay, this story is getting ridiculous. It went from a cute anecdote to people calling "Paul" psychic to actual analysis of it. That is ridiculous. Okay, octopi are living beings, but no one and nothing is psychic. Maybe he has a penchant for certain colours depending on how hungry he is. Maybe he picks flags based on which way he feels like floating that day.

I focused on statistics for my mathematics degree, so I love numbers. However, any one with a basic knowledge of flipping a coin would know that "Paul" has a 50% chance of getting the correct answer. It is called luck.

Michael Specter: The danger of science denial | Video on TED.com

As this blog is meant to discuss many things, not just astronomy and me lecturing you from my lectern of my Mac in my pyjamas, I thought I would share this video with you. For those of you who do not know about TED talks, they are worth a look. They are lectures given by some of the greatest minds of the world (not always, but generally) and you can spend a day, at least, perusing them and learning about anything and everything. Lucky I am telling you about these on a Friday, right? Now you have all weekend to watch TED talks as so many nerds before you have done. I am passing along this video which details societies growing denial of science and reason. From herbal remedies (the dangerous sort, where people really should be on real medicine) to anti-vaccinations and many more. This video mostly focuses on medicine and the environment. Have a look.



Michael Specter: The danger of science denial | Video on TED.com

He makes interesting points. He believes that we can 'innovate' our way out of the declining state of the Earth, but the main problem is that society has a growing trend against science. He states that the battle against science is something not seen since pre-Enlightenment. He makes a great point that the outspoken haters tend to be sort-of educated people who have just been presented with evidence that science can be bad. We can all think of examples. The problem is that now there is a culture of fear towards science. A horrible, terrifying example linked Autism to measles vaccines. This sent people through the roof, against further scientific evidence that there is no connection. Now the amount of people who get measles vaccines are going down. There is a lack of 'causation and correlation'.

He even criticises societies turn towards herbal remedies. There is a lot of evidence that none of these work, but he does not blame society for this, he blames the health care system of America. There is, indeed, a problem when people turn to herbal remedies to cure their cancers or other serious problems. I tend to agree with this, but there is a bigger problem with this. Herbal remedies have turned people's minds against pharmaceutical research.

Big Pharma is evil. We all agree on that, but that does not mean that the outcomes of their research are always bad. Okay, so Big Pharma has a big problem with over-medicating stupid people by literally selling problems to people, then selling them the cure. So how do we respond to this? Educate yourselves! Do not blindly trust and do not blindly deny what people tell you. Scientists follow a strict code of progress with scepticism and you should as well. It is okay to be sceptical of scientists, because if they are worth half-a-salt, you will be able to follow their research just as carefully and see exactly what they did. That is what we need people to do.

You can read Michael Specter's articles in the New Yorker here.

Word of the Week: Perigalacticon!

I have decided to make the inaugural Word of the Week the very same word after which I named this blog. Cool name, right? I like to think it is the name of a super-villain or the name of a pet koala, Peri. In fact, I discovered this word when I was looking for names for cyber-pets when I was growing up. My parents did not think me capable of handling a real pet so I went to technology. Remember those things? Our generation will be plagued with the shame of having tiny keychain pets taken away in school. Former generations, I don't know, walkmans, slide-rules or something and the subsequent generations, blackberries and blueteeth. We, we had mini, pretend pets.

Yes, so I wanted a name for this pet. What did my 8-year-old self turn to? An encyclopaedia titled "Astronomy". I spent about an hour, curled up on my parents floor looking for cool words. I came across a doozie: perigalacticon. It sounds like the name of a star ship.

In fact, it is a little less interesting than an intergalactic star ship, or an evil over-lord, or a cute koala or cheeky monkey (these are the pets I want), but only a little less interesting. So, you have a galaxy, filled with stars and the stars orbit around the centre of the galaxy. The orbit is not a perfect circle and there is one point where the star is the closest to the middle. That point is the 'perigalacticon' of the star's orbit. Cool, right?

Now find a way to work that in to your dialogue today. Good luck!

Japan probe sees asteroid dust - a teaser

No spoilers ahead, no worries. And it is also maybe possibly unlikely that this dust was kicked up by Bruce Willis landing a mining vessel on this, possibly. Intrigued? See, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) released a two-sentence teaser on their website. The HAYABUSA probe has just returned. Joy all around!

The HAYABUSA probe was meant to go take dust from an asteroid and bring it back to Earth. Then scientists are planning on studying the dust to see what kind of minerals are present. This will teach us about the distribution of certain elements in our Solar System, giving clues towards it's evolution.

The Solar System is a tricky beast. The whole 'Pluto=dwarf planet' scandal is evidence of such trickiness. As we learn more, we have to reconsider our view and change our definitions. This is how science works. Things like asteroids are like little messengers from far away that can expand our view and teach us new things, forcing us to look at the Solar System differently or confirming what we had already thought. Science is a beautiful thing.

What is not so beautiful, however, is the world of science. Sometimes. The Japanese have just released a wee teaser of their research. The probe is back, they are in the process of opening it up and looking inside. All we know now is they 'may' have found particles from the ITOKAWA astroid. Maybe. Possibly. The waiting! AH! The waiting!! This is how science works. It's back! Hooray! We found particles! Hooray!! Now, wait. Where are they from? ...tedium ensues.

Rest assured though, that when we have to send Bruce Willis to an asteroid to drill inside and annihilate it, we will know what minerals we are dealing with. That should make the drilling easier, right?

Planck sees the microwave sky

As I promised you science-y things, I have decided to begin with the new release of data from the Planck telescope. Here's how this science stuff is going to work. I am picking a topic and going to give you the basic background of it. Sorry, unavoidable, but don't you think it makes the news much cooler? Any background that would be too tedious to go over, I will just put a link to some basic info on it. Feel free to click the link and learn even more! With that all out of the way, it is time for some learning! Here is the press release that this is about. It has appeared in the BBC, NYTimes and countless other sources, so you may have seen it by now. What is it about you may ask? Here we go!

The Planck telescope is a project launched last year by the European Space Agency (ESA). It was launched in May of last year to survey the Cosmic Microwave Background. What is this "Cosmic Microwave Background" you ask? Well, it's nickname is the CMB. You may have heard this before as it is a famous discovery that presents evidence of the Big Bang. It is, in fact, one of the more elegant discoveries of the 20th century. This is a funny story, so pay attention. The CMB was predicted when cosmologists. No, not people who put on makeup, those are cosmetologists, this means people who study the cosmos. Your confusion is acceptable. It's the same derivation: cosmos comes from Greek for 'beauty', or, the antithesis of chaos. Cool, right?

Okay, back to the funny story of the CMB. So, these cosmologists said that if there was a big explosion that started the universe, we should still be able to see it. This may sound weird to you, and it's even weirder to explain. Stick with me. Skip below if you want to remain ignorant of cool science, or you know it already. So, remember that the Big Bang says we all started at one point which rapidly expanded, like an explosion. Given how much stuff had to be in that single point, it must have been very very hot. Same concept as when you rub your hands together quickly and heat begins to build up. Now imagine hundreds of hands all practically in the same place rubbing against each other very fast. Lots of heat, right? Same thing happens when you have lots of particles in a tiny spot, they vibrate against each other and generate heat. Sexy, I know. We have all this heat and then it expands. The 'hands' are not touching each other anymore so the heat begins to cool off, but it does not disappear. Keeping numbers out of the story, it has been a long time since the universe started to expand. That heat, which remains in the universe, has cooled off a lot. It is predicted, given how big the universe is now, that that heat is only about 3 degrees above absolute zero. Early cosmologists gave predictions for what this temperature would be, but had not made an exact estimate.

So, the discovery. Two guys named Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson were working for Bell Labs in New Jersey. They had a supersensitive radio detector to detect extremely faint radio waves. They got rid of all the interference possible, including heat from the receiver itself. There was noise that did not go away; it was everywhere in the sky, at all times of the day and night. Their conclusion? Pigeon poop. In the dignified scientist way, they cleaned off all the excrement, but the noise remained. Penzias heard about research going on at Princeton to discover some radiation left over from the Big Bang that was suspiciously at the same wavelength as the noise they were fighting. Penzias suddenly realised what a big discovery this was and published their discovery jointly in Astrophysical Journals. The Nobel Prize for this discovery was given to them in 1978 for this discovery as it was the first definitive evidence of the Big Bang.

Right, so where are we now? PLANCK. Planck was a cool guy. He will feature this weekend here on this blog, so stay tuned for that. Until then, let us talk about his namesake, the Planck Telescope. The aforementioned heat is not perfectly uniform. Imagine a flat sheet of paper; if you were to zoom in on the paper, it would go from this:



to this:



Well, it is the same thing with the CMB. A non-sensitive telescope, similar to our eye, would just see the CMB as flat and unchanging. If we get a supersensitive telescope, we can measure all the differences. Why is this important you ask? Well, as it is in fact left over from the Big Bang, the tiny differences give hints to the exact structure of that tiny space when the universe began expanding. So, we need these supersensitive telescopes to see the differences. The Planck telescope was preceded by telescopes such as the WMAP and COBE.

Now, the first images have been released by Planck. Here it is, in all it's glory:



This image includes our own galaxy (the stripe across the middle) and some interstellar dust, which you can probably see yourself. They are going to remove the extra stuff, like the galaxy and the dust. The resulting image will look a little like this (courtesy of WMAP):



This image from WMAP shows extremely tiny changes in the CMB. Like looking really close at a piece of paper, this level of sensitivity gives clues towards the beginning of the universe. As science tends to work, we have predictions on how this should look as well as what that means. Bring it on!

Did you have fun? That's science! There will definitely be updates on this, so keep a wary eye out.

Why I am here

Hello cyber-world! I decided to start this blog to share my pithy ramblings that are the result of hours spent perusing the web-er-tubes. I do not know where this blog will lead, who will choose to follow or whether anyone will, in fact, read it. I do know, however, what motivated me to start this. Let me share with you... are you settled? Okay.

First of all, I am an avid reader of the ScienceBlogs writer, PZ Myers (not to be confused with his scary alter-ego of misspellings, PZ Meyers) and his blog, Pharyngula. Recently, there was an interesting discussion on why there are a lack of prominent female sceptics. Now, the term 'sceptic' can be applied to many things, whether it is a sceptic of religion, a sceptic of faith, a sceptic of the world, a sceptic of miracles, or any other possible thing you want to be sceptical of, the current societal infatuation with Twilight included. I like to think that the world of science is the ultimate haven for sceptics. We were generally led to science by a certain curiosity of how the world around us actually works. And I mean, ACTUALLY works. None of this religion-mumbo-jumbo. I do not know about you, but I find the concept of quark-gluon plasmas much more fascinating than a big man with a great beard pointing his finger and saying 'Me want Universe!' (and you want to know something even better? There's this thing called EVIDENCE for plasmas! Shhhh). So I am here to lend my voice to the world of female sceptics. Indeed, there are few women in my field and I imagine even fewer who want to risk exposing themselves to the cruel world of the blogosphere, but I can take it. If I can be tattooed 15 times I can certainly take on the world of the interwebs.

My personal journey with science has led to me researching the existence of gravitational waves, with a dollop of astrophysics and a soupçon of statistics. This was not a journey of enlightenment, of bright lights and shiny epiphanies, but a tiring one that consisted of fits of anger, holes in my wall the size of physics textbooks, morbid cartoons of Cauchy being eaten by a T-Rex, sweat-laced homework assignments, tears, rage, frustration and many other horrible things. However, it also resulted in some amazing bonding moments with fellow students, the beauty of Cauchy's Integral Theorem, the shininess of finally solving the Schrödinger equation, more science fiction marathons than one would think possible and the amazing feeling of finally being handed the diplomas by the same professors who made my life miserable (but very educated) for four years. Four years, it flies by. So that is me and that is why you should trust me. Also, there are not enough female, tattooed, scientists out there to show other girls who may not fit the stereotype that we do, actually exist and would open them with welcome arms to this world!

I am here to share my thoughts with you, oh Reader. We are going to have a wild adventure together analysing and tearing apart the world around us, with occasional rants on my behalf of my research (all fellow mourners welcome). I may also attempt to teach you some cool things, if you want to learn. Want to join? It should be fun! So pull up a browser, pour yourself some coffee and let the discussion ensue. To emulate the immortal words of The Doctor, I am most definitely a mad woman with an internet account. Let's have an adventure!