I love living in the future.

Cornell University finds treatment to, with a simple injection, completely stop cancer metastasis in mice.

It won't fix the primary tumour, but it will prevent the cells from spreading by cutting off their little cancerous legs. No, really.

This is what happens a star starts producing antimatter.

SN2007bi: The largest explosion ever observed.

"The super-supernova SN2007bi is an example of a "pair-instability" breakdown, and that's like calling an atomic bomb a "plutonium-pressing" device. At sizes of around four megayottagrams (that's thirty-two zeros) giant stars are supported against gravitational collapse by gamma ray pressure. The hotter the core, the higher the energy of these gamma rays - but if they get too energetic, these gamma rays can begin pair production: creating an electron-positron matter-antimatter pair out of pure energy as they pass an atom. Yes, this does mean that the entire stellar core acts as a gigantic particle accelerator.

The antimatter annihilates with its opposite, as antimatter is wont to do, but the problem is that the speed of antimatter explosion - which is pretty damn fast - is still a critical delay in the gamma-pressure holding up the star."

(no subject)

Hayabusa is finally coming home!

For anyone complaining that they're dropping it in the middle of a protected nature/wildlife preserve: Come on, they launched it in 2003 and just about every system on the spacecraft has failed at least once so far! It was originally supposed to land in 2007 and missed, and had to go around for another pass! They're lucky they hit the planet *at all*, and at that point, the theory is basically "any desert we can get to will do".

Apparently today is a space day, kind of.

You! Look at me! Who is moving now!

A Slice Of Life.

torrain: "John, I've got this book, called Monstrous Affections, and I can't find it anywhere.

Me, immediately: "Dining room, your chair."

torrain: ".... uh."

Me: "In the dining room, on your chair."

torrain: "Oh, hey, here it is. How did you know that?

Me, deadpan: "I'm running Google Apartment."

torrain: "Oh, okay."

[~15 second pause as I scritch the dog and go back to my video game]

torrain: "Wait, WHAT?"