Last Night of the Proms, BBC Four

Supermassive Black Hole Witnessed Destroying Red Giant Star

A supermassive black hole, sitting at the centre of a galaxy over 2.7 billion light-years away has been viewed by scientists as it rips apart a red giant star – an event that occurs only once every 100,000 years per galaxy.

Capable of immense destruction and undoubtedly one of the most fascinating enigmas in a universe full of enigmas. Sitting at the hearts of most galaxies, including our own Milky Way Galaxy, supermassive black

holes are the densest objects in the universe, with masses millions to billions times that of our sun. With incredibly strong gravitational fields, supermassive black holes will draw in and destroy any object that passes too close.

Scientists have witnessed this supermassive destruction before, but for the first time, scientists have now been able to … (by Sam Blomfield)

A Cinematic Showdown: The Indies vs. The Multiplex

Scorsese’s new 3D flick, Hugo, was on that night – but that’s not what I was there for. As I’m let in through the doors of Cross Hands Public Hall half an hour before opening time, I’m taken aback by the flooding memories – I’ve spent a thousand hours of my childhood in that hall, watching films like Lion King to the odd part of the Harry Potter franchise. A sticky-sweet smell fills the air, giving the old hall a humble tingle.

It’s no secret that there are more and more multiplexes popping up around the UK, spoon-feeding hot dogs, industrial-sized popcorn and 3D to overpaying customers. Technology is moving fast, and you’ve got to keep up or get left behind – and it’s apparent that independently run cinemas are getting left behind.

… (by Dominic Lewis)

Why We Should All Stop Whining about Modern Cinema

Do you know what people love? Hearing that the world is ending. I mean, not that it’s ending tomorrow or the day after, but just that it’s happening and happening soon. It’s not that it makes them joyful or that, upon hearing it, they will skip off merrily into the street to await the coming destruction reeked by global warming/ nuclear warfare/ God’s wrath. They are more likely to get mad, stamp their feet and rant and rave about who or what they hold to

blame. But it does make them feel warm inside.

You see, people – you, me and everyone else who lives on planet earth or has ever lived on planet earth – are basically insignificant and when we think about the length of time the earth has existed and the length of time it will exist after we die, it forces us to confront that insignificance. And this hurts our … (by David Martin)

Hecht’s Horsefeathers – Not Exactly Science 01

Instructions for making hot cross scientists:

1: Examine the details of their scientific thinking.

2: Correct their trivial mistakes.

Because they/we hate to be questioned on the nature of scientific correctness, it’s seldom discussed – which limits expertise (though luckily humans don’t have to be scientists to think!)

Take wren-sized Longisquama insignis for example, which lived about the time of the start of the dinosaurs. What in the name of all that’s holy are those things hanging off its back?! Are they… some kind of feathers?

But you must cross yourself now that’s been said. People hate that idea because it clashes with theirs. They so hate it they’ll … (by John V. Jackson)

Why We Should Lament the Demise of Print Media

If the Samantha Brick Twitter storm has demonstrated anything (besides the self-promotional abilities of Daily Mail journalists), it’s the untameable nature of online media. It’s hard to tell exactly what she or the Mail anticipated: media outlets are still negotiating the eroding boundaries between writer and reader, blundering through this cacophony of voices into which you shout and hope to be heard.

The Guardian’s recent Open Weekend festival threw these struggles into the

limelight, opening its headquarters to the general public, staging debates and interviews, and asking what the future holds at this time of flux. The event generated extensive chatter online and could be followed through the paper’s website, blogs and Twitter; it was a rather magical thing, watching interviews and editorials made flesh, like fictional characters leaping fully formed from the page.

… (by Samantha Cox)

New Interactive Picture of the Milky Way Contains a Billion Stars

A picture of the Milky Way, ten years in the making, has been released for study. Composed of thousands of smaller images, the massive photographic mosaic contains over one billion stars as seen from Earth.

The immense image has been carefully pieced together using thousands of smaller images of the Milky Way galaxy. The initial images were taken from two UK-developed telescopes located in both the northern and

southern hemispheres – the UK Infrared Telescope in Hawaii and the Vista Telescope in Chile. Both telescopes view the night via infra-red wavelengths instead of the visible wavelengths we use to see. This method of astronomy allows the telescopes gaze to pierce the dust of the Milky Way, gaining a much clearer image of our galaxy.

… (by Sam Blomfield)

Uberman or Ubermental? The Curious Case of Polyphasic Sleep

You may never have thought about it, but you are probably a monophasic sleeper. If you’re awake all day and have one long period of sleep, you’re in the majority of the population. Some lucky fellows manage to get an additional nap; or if you’re in Spain, a Siesta, which is not only one of my favourite words, but means you would be a biphasic sleeper. Both are very normal, very effective ways to keep yourself alive and healthy. The interest really kicks off when you start

considering polyphasic patterns.

The Psychologist J.S. Szymanski coined the term ‘Polyphasic Sleep’ to mean sleeping on more than two occasions in a day. It’s not exactly specific, but the idea behind it is that our ancestors used to sleep multiple times in a day, like many animals still do. There are a lot of reasons why people adopt this pattern, especially in extreme … (by Emma Price)

Fifty-Metre Asteroid to Pass Closer to Earth than Most Satellites

Earlier this year an asteroid, roughly 50 metres across, was discovered in orbit within our solar system. Although at the time of its discovery the asteroid was passing through space far away from our planet, when it next passes Earth in 2013 it will be much much closer.

The asteroid, named 2012 DA14, is currently posing little threat to Earth, found at this moment out in our solar system at a distance roughly equal to

seven times the distance between the Earth and the Moon. The asteroid was detected earlier this year on the 22nd of February at La Sagra Sky Survey Observatory, based atop a mountain in southern Spain.

The team used a series of automated telescopes to scour the night skies, tracking asteroids etc. as they appear. The section of night sky available to the observatory … (by Sam Blomfield)