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Interociter Transmission  News and articles forced upon you by friends you didn't know you had.
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 Source: AFP / Yahoo.
Hundreds of rogue black holes may be roaming around the Milky Way waiting to engulf stars and planets that cross their path, US astronomers said Wednesday. These black holes are unlikely to pose a threat to Earth, but may engulf nebulae, stars and planets that stray into their paths, the researchers said.
"Their danger zone, the Schwarzschild radius, (or gravitational radius) is really tiny, only a few hundred kilometers. There are far more dangerous things in our neighbourhood."
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 10 January 2008 )
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 A new species of Ostracod, or a seed shrimp, was discovered 2 miles (2,700 meters) near a submerged mountain ridge beneath the North Atlantic Ocean. Since the light is so sparse that deep, the tiny seed shrimp has enormous eyes (the orange-ish sphere in image).
Also revealed were a new crustacean species and oodles of other life forms, ranging from polka-dotted glass squid resembling beach balls to grim viperfish with teeth like ice-picks.
The discoveries were made by a team of 31 scientists during a five-week expedition to explore life along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge using remotely operated vehicles equipped with digital cameras and other technologies. They also explored distinct habitats with colorful carpets of sponges and corals covering rocky cliffs, starfish, brittle-stars, sea cucumbers and burrowing worms taking residence in the softer sediments. Above the ridge, fishes, crabs, squid and shrimps foraged for food.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 09 January 2008 )
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 "I still exist!" Thinking back to that dialogue from the classic 1957 film "Incredible Shrinking Man," - Jack Arnold's classic tale adapted from Richard
Matheson's novel about a man who cannot stop shrinking after passing
through a strange mist. Well, that shrinking man would have eventually witnessed acoustic surface plasmon!
Scientists have proved the existence of a new type of electron wave
present on metal surfaces that could assist in the development of
nano-optics and high-temperature superconductors. Known as the
“acoustic surface plasmon”, the phenomenon has previously been
predicted in theory but has been difficult to prove because of the
incredible accuracy required to make measurements on such a minute
scale. “The existence of this wave means that the electrons on the surfaces of
copper, iron, beryllium and other metals behave like water on a lake’s
surface,” says Karsten Pohl, associate professor of physics at University of New Hampshire.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 10 July 2007 )
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 The supernova, known as SN 2006gy, believed to be about 150 times as massive as the sun - exploded into what Scientists say is the brightest stellar explosion ever recorded!
A supernova is a rare and often dramatic phenomenon that involves the explosion of most of the material within a star. Supernovas can be very bright for a short time and usually release huge amounts of energy.
"We are seeing a new type of explosion that has so far only existed in theory, and we believe the first stars in the universe exploded by this mechanism. It may provide a new lesson in the evolution of stars, and a star in our own galaxy may do the same thing tomorrow," reported Mario Livio, astrophysicist from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 08 May 2007 )
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 Dr. Chris Stanley, a minerologist at London's Natural History Museum, was puzzled when mining Group Rio Tinto brought him an unusual specimen. Discovered in a mine near Jadar, Serbia, the mineral had a known chemical
formula - sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide.
Using his own expertise and
specialized resources, Dr. Stanley was unable to identify the mineral. Finally,
researching the
formula on the Internet, it turns out that this mineral had already been described in Superman comic
books and movies. The formula is an exact match for Kryptonite, the fictional
mineral. Kryptonite, according to DC Comics, was created when the planet Krypton
blew up.
"I'm afraid it's not green and it doesn't glow either - although it will react to ultraviolet light by fluorescing a pinkish-orange," reported Dr. Stanley, but "the real mineral is white and harmless. The new mineral does not contain fluorine (which it does in the film) and is
white rather than green but, in all other respects, the chemistry matches that
for the rock containing kryptonite. Finding out that the chemical composition of a material was an exact match to an
invented formula for the fictitious kryptonite was the coincidence of a
lifetime," he added.
Read Technovelgy article...
Read BBC News article...
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 08 May 2007 )
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 For the first time astronomers have discovered a planet outside our solar system that is potentially habitable, with Earth-like temperatures, a find researchers described as a big step in the search for "life in the universe."
The planet is just the right size, might have water in liquid form, and in galactic terms is relatively nearby at 120 trillion miles away. But the star it closely orbits, Gliese 581 - known as a "red dwarf" is much smaller, dimmer and cooler than our sun.
"Because of its temperature and relative proximity, this planet will most
probably be a very important target of the future space missions dedicated to
the search for extra-terrestrial life. On the treasure map of the Universe, one
would be tempted to mark this planet with an X" explains Stéphane Udry, from the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland.
"It's a significant step on the way to finding possible life in the universe," said University of Geneva astronomer Michel Mayor, one of 11 European scientists on the team that found the planet. "It's a nice discovery. We still have a lot of questions."
Read ESO release...
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 08 May 2007 )
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At Saturn's south pole, the Cassini spacecraft recently spotted a bizarre anomaly. It looks like a hexagon, and measures nearly 15,000 miles (25,000 kilometers) across. Four Earths could fit inside it!
"We've never seen anything like this on any other planet. Indeed, Saturn's thick atmosphere, where circularly-shaped waves and convective cells dominate, is perhaps the last place you'd expect to see such a six-sided geometric figure, yet there it is" explained Kevin Baines, atmospheric expert and member of Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Thermal imagery depicts the hexagon extends about 60 miles (100 kilometers) down into the clouds.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 03 April 2007 )
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When I was a third grader, I was fascinated by little books about living undersea. They depicted undersea habitats and the vehicles that moved people about inner space. Today it is becoming a reality! Beginning in 2009, a select group of the world's adventure travelers and undersea enthusiasts will have the opportunity to spend two nights 40 feet underwater in luxury at the 5,000-acre Fijian lagoon Poseidon Undersea Resort.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 09 March 2007 )
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