Making Science More Better For You on 11/06/07

Headline of the day
Couple escapes injury when falling cow hits minivan
(The Drudge Report)
Double word score, at least.


This always happens when we get home late and can't remember where we parked it. Did they look in the hall closet? Under the welcome mat?

Big Chunk Of The Universe Is Missing —Again

ScienceDaily (Nov. 5, 2007) — Not only has a large chunk of the universe thought to have been found in 2002 apparently gone missing again but it is taking some friends with it, according to new research at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). The new calculations might leave the mass of the universe as much as ten to 20 percent lighter than previously calculated.

The same UAH group that found what was theorized to be a significant fraction of the "missing mass" that binds together the universe has discovered that some x-rays thought to come from intergalactic clouds of "warm" gas are instead probably caused by lightweight electrons.

If the source of so much x-ray energy is tiny electrons instead of hefty atoms, it is as if billions of lights thought to come from billions of aircraft carriers were found instead to come from billions of extremely bright fireflies.

From the authors of that best seller "Who Moved My Universe?"

The other headline of the day
Country plans to export citizens' kidneys
(CNN)

We hear they tasted like a cross between a bald eagle and a baby seal

Earliest Birds Acted More Like Turkeys Than Common Cuckoos

ScienceDaily (Nov. 6, 2007) — The earliest birds acted more like turkeys than common cuckoos, according to a new report. By comparing the claw curvatures of ancient and modern birds, the researchers provide new evidence that the evolutionary ancestors of birds primarily made their livings on the ground rather than in trees.



"The claws of Mesozoic birds and their immediate ancestors, the non-avian theropods, are relatively 'straight'--most like [those] of birds that are now either specialized for walking on the ground or have a preference for it, rather than the highly curved claws of birds that spend a lot of time in trees," said Christopher Glen of the University of Queensland. "We were particularly surprised by the fact that all the fossil species, representing evolutionary lineages from non-flying ancestors to early flying birds, had claws more like modern birds that spend most of their time on the ground."

The origin and early evolution of birds has long been a major topic of debate in evolutionary biology, the researchers said. Throughout the 20th century, the issue was generally polarized into those who argued that birds had a ground-based ancestor and those who believed birds evolved from an arboreal ancestor, a "false dichotomy that has hindered progress in the field," they continued.

One last headline of the day
Tokyo shops delay Paris Hilton's Rwanda trip
(CNN)
Doing the Lord's work has its own temptations.