Sun - Solar Flare

Astronomy:
"Soon after the instruments opened their doors, the Sun began performing for SDO with this beautiful prominence eruption. This AIA data is from March 30, 2010, showing a wavelength band that is centered around 304 �. This extreme ultraviolet emission line is from singly ionized Helium, or He II, and corresponds to a temperature of approx. 50,000 degrees Celsius."

Mars 500

Space:

New wave of reality show is upon us! Now a bunch of people will spend 500 days locked in a small room in Russia to simulate a voyage to Mars. Imagine the boredom!

"The Mars500 facility, which is located on the IBMP site in Moscow, comprises four sealed interconnected modules. The total interior volume is about 550 cubic metres. There are no windows. The walls in the living quarters have been covered with a wooden panelling to make them feel slightly less austere. Another module holds the Red Planet landscape. Looking after the participants' needs will be a mission control-room sited just outside the containers. But the experiment's designers are determined to make the training exercise as realistic as possible, so they will introduce a time delay in communications after two months. Because it can take about 20 minutes for a message to travel from Mars to Earth, it will take this amount of time in the simulation, also."

"Cosmonauts ready for Mars test." BBC News
Mars flight simulation

Speeding up brain network might boost IQ

Biology:
So you want to get smarter?
"For decades scientists have tried, mostly in vain, to explain where intelligence resides in our brains. The answer, a new study suggests, is everywhere.
After analysing the brain as an incredibly dense network of interconnected points, a team of Dutch scientists has found that the most efficiently wired brains tend to belong to the most intelligent people.
And improving this efficiency with drugs offers a tantalising – though still unproven – means of boosting intelligence, say researchers.
The concept of a networked brain isn't so different from the transportation grids used by cars and planes, says Martijn van den Heuvel, a neuroscientist at Utrecht University Medical Center who led the new study.
"If you're flying from New York to Amsterdam, you can do it in a direct flight. It's much more effective than going from New York, then to Washington, and then to Amsterdam. It's exactly the same idea in the brain," he says."

"Speeding up brain networks might boost IQ." New Scientist
Brain Networks and Higher IQ

Environment:
Mount St. Helens has blown once before in recent memory. Is a much larger explosion coming?
"IS A supervolcano brewing beneath Mount St Helens? Peering under the volcano has revealed what may be an extraordinarily large zone of semi-molten rock, which would be capable of feeding a giant eruption."

"Supervolcano may be brewing beneath Mount St. Helens." New Scientist
Supervolcano Mount St. Helens

Astronomy:
Scientists have observed that a star about 600 light years away from Earth is shrinking and showing signs that it will go supernova. Of course what we're observing in the sky right now is 600 year old history, since it takes that long for the light from that star to reach us. So the star in present time could already have exploded.

"Nearby Star May Be Getting Ready To Explode." Fox News
Nearby Star May Go Supernova

Chemistry:
New element added to the periodic table, element 112.

"New Chemical Element In The Periodic Table." Science Daily
New Element 112

Element 118, one of the superheavies also discovered.

"Livermore Scientists Team With Russia To Discover Element 118." Science Daily
New Element 118

Massive Black Hole

Astronomy:
"A pair of pioneering astronomers revealed Tuesday how they used a supercomputer to show that a nearby black hole is vastly more massive than scientists ever imagined.
The black hole at the heart of the relatively close Messier 87 Galaxy (M87) weighs in at 6.4 billion times the mass of our Sun, according to US astrophysicist Karl Gebhardt and Germany's Jens Thomas, who say it's the largest ever measured with a reliable technique.
One of the more enigmatic features of astronomy, a black hole is a region in space that is inferred by tracking stars that orbit it. Objects fall into its stupendous gravitational field but nothing, not even light, can return.
Gebhardt and Thomas' revelation, they say, sheds light on how galaxies grow, and may solve the paradox of quasars -- active black holes guzzling matter in distant galaxies that scientists are struggling to understand."
"Black Hole more massive than imagined." Space Daily
Massive Black Hole

Energy:
Nuclear fusion is an interesting thing. The sun and the stars work through nuclear fusion. In this process, several lighter nuclei fuse together and form one larger nucleus. Energy is then released.
"A multi-billion-dollar project to prove whether nuclear fusion, the power that fuels the Sun, can be a practicable energy source is to be scaled down in its early stages, sources said on Monday.
The test reactor, to be built at a site in southern France, will start its experiments in 2018 as scheduled but will initially be built in a slimmed-down form, they said."
"Nuclear fusion power project to start in slimmed-down version." Space Daily
Nuclear Fusion

The Most Distant Object in the Universe

Astronomy:
A NASA satellite recently snapped a picture of the most distant object in the universe discovered so far. It's located 13.1 billion light years away from Earth! Meaning the light had to travel that many years to get to our planet. So basically we are looking at the distant past.

"NASA's Swift satellite and an international team of astronomers have found a gamma-ray burst from a star that died when the universe was only 630 million years old, or less than five percent of its present age. The event, dubbed GRB 090423, is the most distant cosmic explosion ever seen."

"New Gamma-Ray Burst Smashes Cosmic Record" NASA
Most Distant Object in the Universe

Multiverse

Physics:
Multiverse: Multiverse theory states that our universe is just one of many universes. Imagine if you could go back and redo some decision that you had made in the past. According to multiverse theory, there probably is a universe where you made the decision differently. "You" in one dimension could be a millionaire, in another a sports star, in another a bum living under a bridge and in some not exist at all! Under the premise of multiverse theory, the universe divides at each quantum decision. So each second just by waving your hand you're creating millions of new universes!

"How to map the multiverse" New Scientist
How to map the Multiverse

Social Media:
We have entered the era of social media. Social media basically means content created by people. This can be anything such as forums, blogs (by writing a blog you're participating in social media!), wikis and all types of other things. Big social media platforms have emerged such as facebook, where you can create your profile and stay connected to your friends, twitter, where you post micro-comments, or youtube, where you can post your own videos. All this means that user-generated content is becoming dominant over traditional media on the internet such as newspapers or static webpages. This could mean a revolution in ways how our society is organized, how we buy products and how these products are sold. Social media is changing fast. A few years ago, things such as facebook didn't exist and now many people cannot stay connected to their friends without it. The future will bring new ways of using social media.

"The Future of Social Media" Social Media Explorer blog
The Future of Social Media

Social Media/ Government:
The advent of social media could mean a new relationship between the people and their governments. It is impossible to control the internet and it has emerged as the primary source of news and information for many people. Traditionally the government has been in many ways disconnected from the people. Even in democratic societies it was very hard to comment on legislation and control what the government is doing. In many ways this disconnect resulted in democratic deficits. However social media could mean a new way of tracking what is being done by the government and the legislators and even greater individual citizen participation in the drafting and commenting on legislation. There is an interesting website, which tracks what bills are being discussed and passed in the US Congress. People can write their opinions on those bills, make suggestions on improvements or comment on how these bills could impact everyday life.

Open Congress
Open Congress

Business:
The business world is quickly changing and there are different ways to approach it. Several top business professors keep blogs with their comments on the current economic situation, their theories on different aspects of business and on many other things such as strategy.

Top 50 Business Professor Blogs
Business Professor Blogs