Interesting Reading…

Did the solar system ‘bounce’ finish the dinosaurs? - “Scientists at the Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology built a computer model of our solar system’s movement and found that it “bounces” up and down through the plane of the galaxy. As we pass through the densest part of the plane, gravitational forces from the surrounding giant gas and dust clouds dislodge comets from their paths. The comets plunge into the solar system, some of them colliding with the earth. The Cardiff team found that we pass through the galactic plane every 35 to 40 million years, increasing the chances of a comet collision tenfold…”

NASA, APL going to the Sun - “The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory is sending a spacecraft closer to the sun than any probe has ever gone – and what it finds could revolutionize what we know about our star and the solar wind that influences everything in our solar system…”

Pursuit of youth isn’t always pretty - “Name a badge of aging and there’s a fix being peddled by your local dermatologist or plastic surgeon. Crow’s feet? Freeze them with Botox. Laugh lines? Inject them with Restylane. Saggy neck? Tighten and tuck with a scalpel. But is all this really making us look younger? Or just weirder?”

Rainforest seeds revive lost paradise - “Six years ago the area around Samboja in Borneo was like much of the world’s tropical rainforest: denuded. The trees had been cut for timber, the land burnt, and in place of what should be some of the richest biodiversity on the planet were thousands of acres of grass. But from this ruined landscape a fresh forest has been grown, teeming with insects, birds and animals, and cooled by the return of moist clouds and rain. It is a feat that has been hailed by scientists and offers hope for disappearing and ruined rainforests around the world…”

Do Americans Have a Right to TV? - “Next February, somewhere in America, someone out there is going to flip on his tube for some Law & Order: SVU and see nothing but fuzz. He’ll probably grapple with his rabbit ears and pound the side of his aging CRT, but no amount of cajoling will bring back Ice-T’s interrogation room or Richard Belzer’s last unfunny stand. That’s because on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009, the FCC will repossess the analog spectrum from the major television broadcasters and the networks will go all-digital…”

Top 10 Declassified Secrets - “This is a list of secret projects that have since been found to be true in light of released (either officially, or unofficially) documents. Some have long been the source of conspiracy theories while others have been accepted by the mainstream as real…”

5 Psychological Experiments That Prove Humanity is Doomed - “Psychologists know you have to be careful when you go poking around the human mind because you’re never sure what you’ll find there. A number of psychological experiments over the years have yielded terrifying conclusions about the subjects…”

Wastewater Could Help Fight U.S. Drought—and Anthrax - “One solution—to reuse more treated wastewater—has led scientists in search of a chemical-free alternative to the chlorination normally used for disinfection. And a team of researchers funded by the University of Illinois-based, multi-institutional research center known as waterCAMPWS may have found it. Their treatment method hinges on a new photocatalyst, titanium oxynitrate (TiON), which reacts with white light to destroy pathogens…”

Startup Makes Cheap Solar Film Cells … With an Inkjet Printer - “Konarka Technologies, the Massachusetts-based company we first recognized with a 2005 Breakthrough Award for its affordable Power Plastic solar film, said this week that it has successfully manufactured those thin solar cells using an inkjet printer…”

20 most profitable tech companies - “Among Fortune 1000 techs, Microsoft remains on top, taking in $14.1 billion in earnings last year…”

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