This recent signal from space could be many things, but it does look like the sort of thing a radio-transmitting civilization might send.
Maybe it’s a birthday greeting to Stephen Hawking.1
More below, including disappointing news for Captain Kirk and a very small wire.
NPR has the audio and transcript of 2011 science stories in review. Cosmos magazine’s list of the year’s top science stories appears here.
Sense and Science, meanwhile, rounds up its drubbing of celebrities who misreport and misrepresent science. I approve of their regular debunking—but does anyone really turn to Snooki for scientifically sound commentary? And should they be allowed to vote?
And we’ve got some new-ish science stories bellow, the return of the airship, and some largely irrelevant video.
Happy New Year! See you in 2012!
Google has put in a few Easter Eggs to their services. The one I just learned about is directly related to Lord of the Rings, which is enough excuse to post about them here.
Doubtless everyone here by now has heard that the best evidence yet has been found for the Higgs boson, the so-called “God particle” proposed by six physicists in 1964. If it exists, it would help explain much about the universe, including the fact that other particles have mass.
A lot of news and speculation from space lately, including the discovery of a very earthlike planet.
We’ve also found some otherworldly holiday greetings!
This week’s Newspace is nostalgic music oriented. We open with a heavy metal version of My Little Pony, discovered via the Facebook page of Bureau 42 reader hussein: here. We follow that with a video that almost makes Alvin and the Chipmunks worth listening to: here. Finally, we wrap up with a geeky new Thanksgiving song by Paul and Storm.
A group of teenagers in Chilliwack, B.C. lured sexual predators online by pretending to be young girls, and then confronted them while wearing superhero outfits.
A news report with highlights appears at the link, but the group has pulled most of their Youtube Videos.
An age-old dream, most recently revisited by Harry Potter, the invisibility cloak has become a reality– sort of.
An anti-mosquito force field, Martian news, and some very trippy superhero footage follows.
The crew of the model Mars Mission “return” after 520 days in isolation, the Chinese set up space-mail, a prominent social scientist admits to falsifying multiple studies, a timeline for artificial intelligence, an asteroid approaches close to earth, some awesome video for Doctor Who fans, and more:
Our tv reviews may be a little late, but we’ll get’em out. Meanwhile, here’s some seasonal Newspace, including a very creepy trailer for John Carpenter’s Blockhead….
UPDATE: Video of Heidi Klum’s “Visible Woman” costume has been added.