Last night, astronomers with the European Southern Observatory announced that they’d found a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri B — an orange star a little smaller and a little less bright than our own Sun. That’s important, because, while more than 700 planets have been found outside our solar system, this one — Alpha Centauri Bb (yeah, I know) — is by far the closest. To give you an idea of what we’ … Read More → "Why you should care about the planet found orbiting Alpha Centauri, even though it’s not a good place to live"

… Read More → "How LEDs are made"

Bringing the search for another Earth about as close as it will ever get, a team of European astronomers was scheduled to announce on Wednesday that it had found a planet the same mass as Earth’s in Alpha Centauri, a triple star system that is the Sun’s closest neighbor, only 4.4 light-years away.

The planet is the lightest one ever found orbiting another star and — in the words of its discoverer, Xavier Dumusque, a graduate student at the Geneva Observatory — “it will surely be the closest one … Read More → "Earth-sized planet found only 4.3 light years away"

Cardboard never ceases to amaze. Having been deployed in gramophones, stereos and even digital cameras, one inventor now believes it can be used to make the ideal bicycle. Izhar Gafni, from Israel, spent 18 months just folding the material every-which-way in order to discover a strong enough design, and now he claims his technique is almost ready for mass production.
via Read More → "Cardboard bicycle ‘close to mass production’: tough, green and just $20"

55 Cancri e was first identified back in 2004, but at the time scientists thought that it was covered in water and rocks, much like the Earth. We now know that’s probably not true and, what’s more, the most interesting find regarding 55 Cancri e could be under the surface.

More accurate measurements have revealed a surface temperature of nearly 4,000 ° … Read More → "Astronomers discover giant planet chock-full of diamonds"

Sunday morning you’ll be able to see the Orionid meteor shower spawned from Halley’s Comet a few hours before dawn. And it should be absolutely stunning.

The Orionids are one of the two Halley’s Comet showers that happen every year.
via Gizmodo

Continue reading 

Big Data is all around us. It’s in the way we shop, do our finances, and tweet. What does Big Data even mean, you ask?

To some, it’s more information than your laptop can handle. Others define it as melding data from different sources and seeing what patterns emerge.

“I’m a photographer, so that didn’t mean much to me,” said Rick Smolan Oct. 15 here at the inaugural Wired Health Conference in New York.

Then the Against All Odds Productions CEO ran into … Read More → "Big data is transforming healthcare"

Kieron Jansch’s first kite was a diamond-shaped stunt kite with a tail. His friend had bought it for him, and Jansch loved it, but also managed to run it repeatedly into the ground. At the time he was studying sculpture in university in London, and couldn’t afford to buy a new one after his first flyer was pulverized. So he decided … Read More → "How to build a 40-foot extreme stunt kite"

“If we get to a point where a female physicist is as famous as Cheryl Cole, we’ll have sorted out the issue,” said Suw Charman-Anderson.

She is the organiser of Ada Lovelace Day, an annual event designed to raise the profile of female scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians.

Ada Lovelace Day is on 16 October and in London a cabaret-style evening of talks, demonstrations and singing, all performed by women, will mark the event, with additional celebrations planned in Brazil, Slovenia, Sweden, Italy and the US.

The … Read More → "Ada Lovelace Day: Women celebrate female scientists"

This year, a record 55,000 people made the annual pilgrimage to Black Rock Desert in Nevada to build a temporary city in the desert. For over a week, they inhabit the dusty abyss, dancing and sharing gifts, before taking off and leaving no trace of civilization behind.

Would you believe that your typical costume-wearing, drugged-out attendee at Burning Man, is almost as likely to vote Republican as Democratic or Independent? And probably works 9 to 5 in the computers or technology field, the most well-represented profession at the festival (this year, one of the most popular camps was “ … Read More → "Survey reveals techies, not hippies, dominate Burning Man"