Magnetic Cocoons
Power Energetic Cosmic Rays
by Marcus Chown, NewScientistSpace
Vast magnetic cocoons associated with
galaxies whose black holes have stopped eating may be responsible
for accelerating charged particles called cosmic rays to within a
whisker of the speed of light.
It could explain one of the great mysteries of astrophysics – how
enormously energetic cosmic rays make it to Earth, when common sense
says they should long ago have run out of steam.
Cosmic rays are high-speed atomic nuclei, most commonly of hydrogen.
Most come from objects within our galaxy, such as supernova remnants
and pulsars...
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Are We Missing a
Dimension of Time?
Telegraph
Could "hypertime" help develop a theory of
everything? Roger Highfield reports
A scientist has put forward the bizarre suggestion that there are
two dimensions of time, not the one that we are all familiar with,
and even proposed a way to test his heretical idea next year.
# Itzhak Bars explains two time physics
# Telegraph Earth
Time is no longer a simple line from the past to the future, in a
four dimensional world consisting of three dimensions of space and
one of time. Instead, the physicist envisages the passage of history
as curves embedded in a six dimensions, with four of space and two
of time.
"There isn't just one dimension of time," Itzhak Bars of the
University of Southern California in Los Angeles tells New
Scientist. "There are two. One whole dimension of time and another
of space have until now gone entirely unnoticed by us..."
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Sparks Fly Over
Meteorite
by
Alan
Boyle, MSNBC
It's a story worthy of an "Indiana
Jones" sequel: Drawn by outlandish legends, a controversial
collector journeys to Peru, purchases pieces of a rare meteorite
under shady circumstances, then has to hightail it across the border
to Bolivia with police in hot pursuit. Now the plot is nearing its
resolution - and the finale could make another meteorite-size
splash.
"It's been quite an interesting week for me," Michael Farmer told me
today from his home in Arizona. "I did have to make my escape,
that's for sure. ... Another day in the life of a meteorite hunter."
The tale began Sept. 15, when villagers in a remote corner of Peru
said they saw a fireball falling to Earth, went out to investigate
and spotted a huge crater partly filled with bubbling water. Some
smelled an unpleasant odor, and fell ill with headaches and upset
stomachs. Initial reports from the scene suggested that the cause of
this all was a meteorite emitting hazardous fumes - and in response,
authorities called a state of emergency...
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British Scientists
Make Water Defy Gravity
by Nic Fleming, Science Correspondent
British scientists have managed to
make drops of water defy gravity by flowing uphill.
*
Video: Watch vibrating droplet flow uphill
Researchers achieved the unlikely feat
by vigorously vibrating the droplets. The force created when they
bulged upwards as the surface they were on dropped was enough to
make them trickle up a steep slope.
Small raindrops on windscreens can remain in place due to surface
tension, until they grow to a size where this force is overcome by
gravity. ..
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