Science News reports on the hottest, heaviest science ever to come out of a research lab:

Talk about hot and heavy. Scientists have taken the temperature of a minuscule glob of dense, hot matter formed in the grisly aftermath of collisions between gold atoms traveling near the speed of light. The material reaches an estimated 4 trillion degrees Celsius, [...]

Deep.

Another William Miller illustration – this time, a simple flower study in color.

Odd how spending a few moments looking at this Erigeron alpinum leaves me feeling just as mortal as Miller’s skull study. Maybe it’s just me… but the name “erigeron” comes from the Greek, Wikipedia says: “eri” means “early” and “geron” means “old age.” They turn white [...]

SONG: “My Girlfriend’s a Robot” (To download: double right-click & “Save As”)

ARTIST: grant. Originally done like this.

SOURCE: This is a penitential cover with no specific scientific source. It’s by The Hanson Brothers, who are not these savage hockey players nor this bubblegum pop band, but some kind of combination of the [...]

The Telegraph hails the promise of herds of elephant-sized cattle returning to Europe’s plains:

Now Italian scientists are hoping to use genetic expertise and selective breeding of modern-day wild cattle to recreate the fearsome beasts which weighed around 2,200lb and stood 6.5 feet at the shoulder.

…

“We were able to analyse auroch DNA from preserved bone material and create a [...]

Discover tells me the “nerd syndrome” (or whatever we’re calling it in today’s papers) is no longer listed in the DSM, the “Bible of Psychiatry.” Instead, it’s now subsumed into “autism spectrum disorder” – one of several controversial edits:

Other proposed changes include officially classifying binge eating as disorder—but not obesity. Similarly, there’s a proposal to include “hypersexual disorder,” [...]

The Telegraph teases me with the promise of life on Enceladus:

Nasa’s Cassini spacecraft flew through icy plumes created by ice volcanoes and detected negatively charged water molecules, in a clear sign an underground sea exists.

On Earth this short-lived type of ion is produced where water is moving, such as in waterfalls or crashing ocean waves.

British scientists, reporting [...]

LiveScience illuminates a mystery I’m not sure I even knew existed – how is it that sea urchins can see without eyes:

Although sea urchins don’t have any problems avoiding predators or finding comfortable dark corners to hide in, they don’t have eyes. The question then is how they see.

Genetic analysis of sea urchins has revealed they have light-sensitive [...]

So much for that final night shot: low clouds over the launch site.

So not only have the moon program and Ares rockets been shelved, but now the ground crew a/ didn’t get to light the big firecracker and b/ have to come to work at the same time the Super Bowl kicks off.