Science News rhapsodizes over Johns Hopkins research into what happens in musicians’ brains that makes the music happen:

“What we think is happening is that when you’re telling your own musical story, you’re shutting down neural impulses that might impede the flow of novel ideas,” says Limb, himself a trained jazz saxophonist.

Moreover, jazz musicians immersed in improvisation display heightened brain [...]

You might think that Wired is misguided when it publishes reports on our nation building tactical laser weapons and healing devices made from LEDs (the tiny lightbulbs in tiny flashlights and old car dashboards). But I say America is a land of hope and promise. I say, Yes, we can!:

Obama helped secure $1.95 Million for the so-called “Compact Tactical [...]

Arthur C. Clarke’s last message to the world:

So many of his wishes have already come true.

From the BBC:

“Sir Arthur has left written instructions that his funeral be strictly secular,” his secretary, Nalaka Gunawardene, was quoted as saying by news agency AFP.

She said the author had requested “absolutely no religious rites of any kind”.

…

When asked why he [...]

Washington Post reports on the one of the deepest mysteries of the animal world – the strange history of the domestic cat:

In one of the most comprehensive explorations of cats’ origins to date, [Leslie A.] Lyons [of the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California at Davis] and her colleagues spent about five years collecting feline [...]

Yeah, it’s feature news from ABC, but still – betcha didn’t know what astronauts have to put up with:

You can’t freeze-dry pizza or dehydrate it very successfully and regular pizza delivery is probably a few decades off from becoming reality.

Astronaut Mike Massimino, a native New Yorker, misses good pizza. “It is hard to get good pizza in Texas. It [...]

New Scientist reports on geneticists who might have isolated the specific genes for longevity:

[T]he [Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University] team… identified the two gene mutations in centenarians of Ashkenazi Jewish descent.

Both mutations affect the receptor for insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1), a driver of bodily growth and maturity, especially during puberty. By making the receptor slightly [...]

Click for larger image

This is a visible-light image of M-104, the Sombrero Galaxy, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

If our eyes were sharp enough, we could see this ourselves just by looking up. Billions of stars, spinning billions of miles away.

There’s more information at the Hubble Space Telescope site.

Medicinenet has a real downer of a report, dude. Stoners are more likely to contract severe gum disease:

After controlling for other risk factors for gum disease, including tobacco use, the 32-year-old study participants who smoked the most marijuana were 60% more likely to show evidence of gum disease than 32-year-olds who had never smoked pot.

Almost one in three people [...]

Endgadget is freaking out over a joint University of Cincinnati/Air Force breakthrough creating an environmentally friendly light source, called BioLEDs, out of salmon sperm:

The so-called BioLEDs are being developed in cooperation with the Air Force (yes, the Air Force — they had a “good source” of salmon sperm, apparently) and they’ve been so successful that Steckl has been [...]