You are dying. Twenty seconds ago your heart and breathing stopped and your pupils became fixed and dilated. Your brain cells are in a state of panic, trying every trick they know to get hold of oxygen and glucose. An electroencephalogram (EEG) would show no electrical activity in your cortex, the thin outer layer of your brain. You have flatlined.
But are you dead?
Intriguing article by Brian Appleyard on TimesOnline
Pope Benedict XVI has paid tribute to 17th-Century astronomer Galileo Galilei, whose scientific theories once drew the wrath of the Catholic Church.
The Pope was speaking at events marking the 400th anniversary of Galileo's earliest observations with a telescope.
Full story on BBC News
As winter sets in, the 800 hearty denizens of the coldest town on earth are bracing for one of the most frigid blasts yet, as forecasters predict that temperatures in Oymyakon, Siberia, could plunge to the coldest ever recorded in an inhabited location. There is no disputing that the mercury slides in Alaska and even in the Midwestern U.S. in the heart of winter. But if you want cold, visit Oymyakon, which this winter is expected to reach (or perhaps exceed) its record low temperature: a bone-chilling minus 90 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 68 degrees Celsius) reached on Feb. 6, 1933. It is a record matched only by nearby Verkhoyansk, Siberia, which endured minus 90 degrees Fahrenheit on Feb. 7, 1892.
More on Scientific American
via The Presurfer
The custom of festive lighting for Christmas is a long standing tradition which has been adopted in secular fashion in various cultures throughout the world. The use of lighting displays is highly diverse, ranging from simple light strands to full-blown animated tableau of picturesque displays, involving dramatic scenes of complex illuminated animatronics and statues that would make Chevy Chase proud, with the role he played as Clark Griswold in the movie Christmas Vacation.
Spectacular Christmas lights from around the world on Life in the fast lane
University of Minnesota anthropology professor Kieran McNulty (along with colleague Karen Baab of Stony Brook University in New York) has made an important contribution toward solving one of the greatest paleoanthropological mysteries in recent history -- that fossilized skeletons resembling a mythical "hobbit" creature represent an entirely new species in humanity's evolutionary chain.
Full story on ScienceDaily
The Big Bang is widely considered to have obliterated any trace of what came before. Now, astrophysicists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) think that their new theoretical interpretation of an imprint from the earliest stages of the universe may also shed light on what came before.
Full article on ScienceDaily
The Star of Bethlehem, which Christian lore maintains led the wise men to the birthplace of Jesus, is one of the most enduring and well-known Christmas legends. Almost as enduring among sky-watchers is the question of whether an ordinary (that is, non-miraculous) astronomical event could have fit the biblical description of the star.
Read more on Scientific American
Expert swimmers who complain that some waters sap their progress even in fair weather may be telling the truth, experiments reveal
Full story on New Scientist
Archaeologists excavating a Ming dynasty tomb in China have called in experts after being baffled by a discovery of a watch ring with 'Swiss' engraved on the back. The archaeologists are currently working a documentary with two Shangsi journalists, and are puzzled as to the origins of the timepiece. It is thought that the site had not been disturbed since its creation four centuries ago.
Read more on Third Eye Concept
A deluge that swept the Land of Israel more than 7,000 years ago, submerging six Neolithic villages opposite the Carmel Mountains, is the origin of the biblical flood of Noah, a British marine archeologist said Tuesday. The new theory about the source of the great flood detailed in the Book of Genesis comes amid continuing controversy among scholars over whether the inundation of the Black Sea more than seven millennia ago was the biblical flood.
Full article on the Jerusalem Post
Imagine swarms of aircraft patrolling the skies, zapping missiles, aircraft or even satellites in low Earth orbit with invisible, ultrapowerful laser beams.
Such laser battles in the sky may not be such a long way off, after a megawatt laser weapon was fired from an aircraft for the first time.
The tiny tangled threads of the world's oldest spider web have been found encased in a prehistoric piece of amber, a British scientist said Monday.
Oxford University paleobiologist Martin Brasier said the 140-million-year-old webbing provides evidence that arachnids had been ensnaring their prey in silky nets since the dinosaur age. He also said the strands were linked to each other in the roughly circular pattern familiar to gardeners the world over.
Read full article on Discovery News
A corroded lump of bronze from an ancient Greek shipwreck turns out to be an advanced astronomical calculator. New Scientist explores the latest link between this device and antiquity's most famous mathematician
Klaatu barada nikto, indeed.
Seeking the ultimate red carpet, or perhaps a chance to get a good word in for humanity to whoever might be Out There watching, the makers of the new movie “The Day the Earth Stood Still” have arranged for it to be beamed into space on Friday, on the same day the movie opens here on planet Earth.
Dennis Overbye on The New York Times
