First-ever high-resolution images of a molecule as it breaks and reforms chemical bonds

Credit: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California at Berkeley

The original reactant molecule that is resting on a flat silver surface is imaged both before and after the reaction, which occurs when the temperature > 90° Celsius. 
The two most common final products of the reaction are shown. The three-angstrom scale bars (an angstrom is a ten-billionth of a meter) indicate that the reactant and product molecules are about a billionth of a meter across...

>>Continue reading the article at phys.org<<

xkcd: webcomics & what-ifs

A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language. It was started by a CNU graduate, Randall Munroe, with a degree in physics. Before starting xkcd, he worked on robots at NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia.
The comic's tagline describes it as a "Stick-figure strip featuring humor about technology, science, mathematics and relationships"

xkcd:612

Since July 2012, there has been a branch of xkcd called xkcd What-If, which is updated every Tuesday. What If? answers unusual reader-submitted science questions in a creative and humorous, but always mathematically sound, way, and is presented more in the format of an article than a traditional comic strip.

What does space sound like? | I Fucking Love Science

Photo credit: The image is of the central 50 pc (~150 light years) of the Galactic centre showing ionised gas, hot and warm dust. Credit: Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Spitzer Space Telescope

NASA’s Voyager 1 has passed the heliosphere and into the interstellar medium. NASA knew the spacecraft had reached this point because of the vibrations of interstellar plasma detected by Voyager's antennae. The sounds were recorded using an onboard plasma wave instrument, which detected the vibrations of dense interstellar plasma, or ionized gas, from October to November 2012 and April to May 2013.

The Voyager I & II Spacecraft have sent back recordings from Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. You can listen to​ some more space sounds here.

>>Read the full article<<

 

Teensy alien-looking skeleton from Chile poses a medical mystery

Sirius via YouTube

A 6-inch-long (15-centimeter-long) skeleton was found in Chile's Atacama Desert. The skeleton showed several anomalies, including its alien-like skull, teensy body and the fact that it had just 10 ribs rather than the 12 that healthy humans normally have.

>>Read full Article from NBC news<<

Superman-strength bacteria produce 24-karat gold

Superman-strength bacteria produce 24-karat gold

At a time when the value of gold has reached an all-time high, Michigan State University researchers have discovered a bacterium's ability to withstand incredible amounts of toxicity is key to creating 24-karat gold.