Large Hadron Collider "Actually Worked"

The world's largest atom smasher's first experiment went off today without a hitch, paving the way toward the recreation of post-big bang conditions. The Large Hadron Collider fired a beam of protons inside a circular, 17-mile (27-kilometer) long tunnel underneath villages and cow pastures at the French-Swiss border.

Scientists Look to Sperm to Power Nanobots

"According to MSNBC, scientists are experimenting with using a sperm's flagellum to overcome the problem of supplying energy to nanobots that could be implanted in the body as smart probes that would release disease-fighting drugs, monitor enzymes and perform other medical roles within a patient's body. Powered by a compound called adenosine triphosphate or ATP, a sperm's flagellum can propel it at about 7 inches an hour. Energy from ATP could also power the pumps charged with dispensing the medication at a certain rate from the nanobots."

Dinosaur Mummy Found

Several years ago, paleontology graduate student Tyler Lyson, then a teenager, found an incredibly well-preserved duck-billed dinosaur on his North Dakota property. Now, a team of researchers, including Lyson, have announced details of the discovery and excavation. Amazingly, the hadrosaur, roughly 35 feet long and weighing 35 tons, was naturally "mummified." Mineralization left much of its soft tissue, bones, tendons, ligaments, and skin intact. Seen here, a bit of its scaly skin. The scientists have named the 67 million-year-old creature Dakota.

Galaxies Are Born Of Violence Between Dark Matter and Interstellar Gas

ScienceDaily (Nov. 30, 2007) — Researchers using supercomputer simulations have exposed a very violent and critical relationship between interstellar gas and dark matter when galaxies are born -- one that has been largely ignored by the current model of how the universe evolved.

The background image shows the large-scale cosmic context (the panel is approximately 100,000 light years across); the inset shows the central 2,000 light years of the dwarf galaxy where powerful feedback from newly born star clusters drives bulk motions in the gas. Stars are shown in yellow; colours from violet to blue to green to white correspond to gas of increasing density. (Credit: S. Mashchenko, J. Wadsley, and H. M. P. Couchman)

Left Brain Helps Hear Through The Noise

ScienceDaily (Nov. 18, 2007) — Our brain is very good at picking up speech even in a noisy room, an adaptation essential for holding a conversation at a cocktail party, and now we are beginning to understand the neural interactions that underlie this ability. An international research team reports today, in the online open access journal BMC Biology, how investigations using neuroimaging have revealed that the brain's left hemisphere helps discern the signal from the noise.