ScienceNow: If Michael Turner had known what he was in for, he might have stayed home. As the moderator of a debate held here last night at the National Museum of Natural History, the University of Chicago cosmologist had the unenviable task of trying to crown a winner in a match-up between Brian Greene and Lawrence Krauss, two physics heavyweights duking it out over the merits–or lack thereof–of the so-called Theory of Everything.
BBC: A deep scar under the North Sea thought to be the UK’s only impact crater is no such thing, claims a leading geologist.
Minneapolis Star Tribune: As it increases its use of robots in war zones, the military will begin using an explosive-sniffing version that will allow soldiers to better detect roadside bombs, which account for more than 70 percent of U.S. casualties in Iraq.
Wired: How nonconformity, not rote learning, unlocked his genius.
Nature: How much can geometry and mathematics reveal about paintings? How far should hidden meanings be trusted in art? Jo Marchant investigates the latest, and possibly most controversial, interpretation of a Renaissance masterpiece.
The New York Times: Convoluted economics and intense speculation have pushed up the price of uranium to levels not seen since the heyday of the industry in the mid-1970s.
The Christian Science Monitor: Schemes from space mirrors to vast algal blooms have sparked debate over the ethics of geoengineering.
MSNBC: Terahertz radiation travels around thin sheet of metal
Reuters: Three months after destroying a satellite in a weapons test, and days before China hosts an international meeting on the threat of space debris, China’s state-run media has announced that China is calling for a treaty to stop the spread of weapons in outer space. The move comes hours after a Lan Chile Airbus A340 was almost hit by a Russian satellite burning up on re-entry.
Wired: Enjoy all those fiery red images of Saturn from NASA’s Cassini orbiter? You can thank Carolyn Porco, the planetary scientist who made its moons into stars — web stars, that is.
Porco is the leader of the imaging team for NASA’s Cassini orbiter, which is currently circling Saturn in what may be the last multibillion-dollar planetary mission for a long time. (Yeah, budget cuts — get used to way smaller missions with lots of reusable parts.)