Right Science Technology and Health

Greeks earliest sighting of Halley’s comet in history around 466 BC say scientists. The Journal of Cosmology says that the Greeks may have seen the comet during a period of 80 days in 466BC. The previous earliest reference to Halley’s comet was by the Chinese is 240 BC, according to New Scientist magazine. But writings by the ancient Greeks about a large meteorite falling between 466 – 467 BC may change who saw Halley’s comet first.

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Okay, so merely having a subscription to ‘Sky and Telescope’ or ‘Astronomy’ magazines are no longer enough to satisfy you. You have to buy a telescope! You simply MUST have one! Well, before you start breaking into your piggy bank, let us consider a few things first. Such as, where do you live? In a house, an apartment? In or near a large town or city?

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As summer slips in autumn and the days grow shorter, the nights get longer. This makes the next six months or so a great time to explore the night sky. While many novice astronomers may think buying a telescope is the best first step in star gazing, I would argue that a good pair of binoculars should be given serious consideration.

If your passion for astronomy has brought you to a place where you are ready to spend money, then please hear me out. I will be writing about choosing a good ‘1st telescope’ in another article this week. But let us consider a few things first.
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Want your own nuclear reactor? That might be as far off as you think (well, maybe it is, but regardless . . .). Apparently Toshiba has begun developing what it calls a small nuclear reactor designed for both developed and emerging countries.

This nuclear reactor, called the Toshiba 4S has some big advantages over the traditional nuclear reactor. Namely, it is very compact, it has minimal monitoring and maintenance requirements and comes with an automatic shutdown feature for safety purposes (always a good thing).

Reportedly both Mitsubishi and Hitachi have also developed similar concept reactors that output anywhere from 350,000-600,000 kilowatts. Not to shabby.

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Straight out of the pages of a sci-fi book, scientists claim they are close to creating the first artificial life form. No, this isn’t something out of Clarke or Asimov, this is actual science from the J Craig Venter Institute in Maryland. Dr. Craign Venter, somewhat of a controversial figure in science circles, claims that a synthetic organism is likely just months away as a large obstacle has finally been overcome. His claim is that the first man-made organism will be a bacteria that is a bit on the simple side, but still an important step on the road of evolution. Reporting on the work of Dr. Venter’s team the Daily Mail stated:

In January, the team created the entire genetic code of a new bacterium. They now hope to transfer such artificial DNA into a host cell to create a new species, the journal Science reported.

Yesterday Dr Venter said: ‘Assuming we don’t make any errors, I think it should work and we should have the first synthetic species by the end of the year.’

The team successfully transplanted the genome of one bacteria into another for the first time in 2007.

They then created the first entirely man-made genome. But previous attempts to introduce the synthetic genome into another organism and take control of the new bacteria all failed.

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