Having realised that there are excactly 40 replies per page on this forum, as this page has got rather long, this post will be the 40th post on this page, so we can then start a new page.

And hoprefully, this reply, if my maths is correct, will start the next page. This story from the BBC sounds more like science fiction, and what about the effects on sealife?

Swarms of marine turbines could 'tap the Gulf Stream'

By Lakshmi Sandhana Technology reporter

Darris White is a deep thinker.

The engineer at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in the US is currently finalising designs for a series of turbines that could be used to harness the immense energy of the Gulf Stream, flowing deep in the Atlantic Ocean.

The underwater stream roughly contains around 21,000 times more energy than the Niagara Falls and by some estimates, could potentially provide up to one-third of Florida's electricity needs.

"Hydrokinetic power from the Gulf Stream can provide enough power for over a million households in Florida," said Professor White.

But the nature of the Gulf Stream presents different challenges, said Professor White.

"Even though the Gulf Stream is constrained between two bodies of land, the flow rate and location of peak velocity will change, based on seasonal and weather conditions."

The solution, Professor White and his team suggest, are autonomous turbines with so-called "swarm intelligence" that can navigate through the ocean currents, similar to a school of fish searching for food.

"Swarm intelligence can achieve two goals. One is to find the 'sweet spot' of the Gulf Stream, which is the location where the array will achieve maximum power output," he said.

"The other goal is to find the array orientation and alignment that provides optimal efficiency."

Current thinking

A prototype is currently under construction and should be complete within the next 18 months, he said.

The team plans to equip the turbines with sensors that detect the change of hydrodynamics and the swarm's own movements, along communication mechanisms so that turbines can "talk" to one another and share their position.

The entire swarm will either be tethered to the sea floor with anchors, allowing them to migrate within a limited area, or be attached to a movable platform for fixing and transferring the power.

Power from all the turbines will be integrated into a single transmission line and transmitted to a substation on land through high-voltage power lines.

The idea of harnessing the power of the Gulf Stream is not entirely new.

Gulf Stream Turbines is a start-up company that holds several patents for water turbine designs; its founders hope to tie up with interested parties to develop the technology further and produce inexpensive energy continuously from the ocean currents.

But Professor White and his team believe their solution has several advantages over other approaches and current renewables, such as wind turbines.

"The best wind resources are in sparsely populated areas, which results in transmission challenges," he explained.

"Water turbines placed in streams, rivers and ocean currents provide a relatively constant source of power with fewer intermittence problems."

An array of 30 to 50 turbines is expected to generate around 15 to 20 million Watts of electricity at the sweet spot in the Gulf Stream, which is enough energy to meet the requirements of around 6000 to 8000 houses.

However, some experts are sceptical of the idea.

"It will require a herculean effort to tackle this approach," says Trey Taylor, president of renewable firm Verdant Power.

"Collectively, the industry does not know enough yet about all of the variables that need to be addressed in this effort."

Peter Fraenkel, technical director of leading UK marine energy firm Marine Current Turbines, agrees.

"The main disadvantage of this approach is that it does not sound very practical," he said.

In particular, he said, the forces involved with extracting energy form the Gulf Stream are huge.

"This force has to be carried through any moorings and anchors into the seabed."

Ordinary anchors would simply plough a furrow, rather than staying put.

As a result, he said, the turbines would need to be fixed to the seabed with solid anchors.

"How do you drill holes in the seabed 300 metres underwater?," he asked. "With considerable difficulty."

Spot on?

There's also a question as to whether the turbines need to move around at all.

"The location of the highest currents is very predictable in these cases, and there would little benefit in trying to move the turbines around 'intelligently' from day to day," says Chris Lawn, Professor of thermo-fluids engineering at Queen Mary, University of London.

However, Professor White and his colleague Yan Tang are not put off.

They point to evidence - although limited - that shows the sweet spot can move by a distance of up to 1km and that fixing the turbines in place wouldn't allow for optimal operation during all seasons.

"Even if the currents don't migrate that much, the current direction may change. So we need to adjust water turbine orientation to achieve optimal performance," says Dr Tang.

The team also thinks that existing mooring systems developed for movable offshore rigs could be adapted to help the swarm operate, rather than developing an entirely new fixture.

They are also trying to head off other potential problems early, like the turbines' effect on sea life.

One solution could be in-built intelligence that either shuts down the turbines or move the whole swarm out of the way of sea life.

Right now, the team is busy constructing a prototype and hopes to begin tests in 2012.

Testing individual or swarm turbines in the ocean will require the team to gain permission and permits from several federal agencies including the US Army Corp of Engineers.

"We need to overcome certain major milestones but the largest issue we face is permitting," said Professor White.

"A permanent placement of water turbines in the Gulf Stream will also require an extensive and ongoing environmental impact study," he said.

However, he added, it will be worth it if they can prove the concept works.

"Greenhouse gases would be reduced by the same amount as removing over a million vehicles from the road.

"I have three young daughters and one reason we are working on renewable energy projects is to ensure that our children and future generations enjoy the same quality of life that we have today."

For once, a very local (for me) story from the BBC:

A dormouse has been spotted at a Gloucestershire nature reserve for the "first time ever", 12 years after special nesting boxes were installed.

Thirty boxes were introduced to the Collin Park Wood Nature Reserve near Hartpury in 1998 but were unsuccessful.

A further 30 were added in 2008 but were mostly occupied by blue tits.

Reserve manager, Jackie Birch, said she got the "surprise of her life" when she saw a dormouse during one of her regular checks.

The creatures prefer coppiced woodland with wide varieties of trees and shrubs.

The Gloucestershire reserve has recently re-introduced the practice of coppicing, where tree stumps are cut short so more shoots can re-grow.

Other nesting boxes on the reserve contained green leaves and shredded honeysuckle which Ms Birch said is a "tell-tale sign" that dormice are using them.

Once widespread, the dormouse has become extinct across half its range in England.

Dormice are a European Protected Species and are subject to stringent safeguards under the Habitats Regulations Act.

And to accompany the above, here is a video clip. The music is Bach's French suite for keyboard No. 5 in G major and is played by Glenn Gould.

A mammoth article from the BBC:

Mammoth-killing space blast 'off the hook'

By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News

The theory that the great beasts living in North America 13,000 years ago were killed off by a space impact can now be discounted, a new study claims.

Mammoths, giant bears, big cats and the like disappeared rapidly from the fossil record, and a comet or asteroid strike was seen as a possible culprit.

But tiny diamonds said to have been created in the collision have been misinterpreted, a US-UK team says.

Without these diamonds, the theory falls, the group tells PNAS journal.

"This was really the last pillar for this theory and I think it's time now everyone moved on," said co-author Professor Andrew Scott, from Royal Holloway, University of London, UK, told BBC News.

Case built

It has been one of the big palaeo-debates of recent years: what caused the extinction of the creatures and human settlers living across North America at the start of a millennium-long climate cooling event known as the Younger Dryas?

The traditional theory had been that a sudden release of fresh water from a giant glacial lake into the North Atlantic had upset the ocean's circulation and sent temperatures plummeting in just a few years.

But then a group of scientists started to challenge this position by pointing to what they said were tell-tale signs in the sediments at archaeological sites of an ancient impact from space.

These 12,900-year-old sediments were claimed to hold exotic materials: tiny spheres, ultra-small specks of diamond - called nanodiamond - and amounts of the rare element iridium that are too high to have occurred naturally on Earth.

The sediments were also said to contain a layer of charcoal deposited by the colossal fire that would have swept the continent after the event.

No crater has ever been identified, but the proponents say the impactor may simply have broken up in the atmosphere as it came in; and as proof they have produced mammoth tusks that appear to have meteoritic shrapnel embedded in them.

Carbon clues

But detractors believe they have now unpicked much of this evidence, and in the latest edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences they say they have demolished the theory's best, last hope - the nanodiamonds.

These nano-sized, hexagonal bits of diamond, called lonsdaleite, can be good tracers for impacts; they're created in the intense pressure and heat of a space collision.

But having examined closely the materials purported to be nanodiamonds in this case, Tyrone Daulton, Nicholas Pinter and Andrew Scott say there has been a misinterpretation.

"We looked for these diamonds and we couldn't find them," said Professor Scott. "But not only that, [the proponents of the theory] have misinterpreted what are really just aggregations of carbon.

"There were frequent low-temperature fires all through this period - this is no big deal. And what happens is that the carbon in molecules gets re-ordered and this happens in very small domains, less than micron-sized areas.

"It's not a high-temperature phenomenon; it happens at low temperatures. Obviously, what they've done is take that material and identified these domains as diamonds when they're not."

Under pressure

Even before this latest study, one of the world's leading experts on impacts - Dr Jay Melosh of Purdue University, US - had shown that an airburst was not capable of producing the shock pressures necessary to make nanodiamonds.

The proponents of the impact theory are not prepared to let go of their ideas just yet, however.

Dr Douglas Kennett of the University of Oregon, Eugene, US, told Science Magazine that the research featured in PNAS had been looking in the wrong sediments.

"The Daulton et al claim that we have misidentified diamonds is false and misleading," he said.

Obviously I cannot find a video clip of a real mammoth, but I did find this too brief animation from a Danish student.

I don't think this car is likely to appear on our roads just yet: Another BBC story:

Bloodhound diary: How flat is flat?

By Andy Green World Land Speed Record Holder

RAF fighter pilot Andy Green intends to get behind the wheel of a car that is capable of reaching 1,000mph (1,610km/h). Powered by a rocket bolted to a Eurofighter-Typhoon jet engine, the Bloodhound car will mount an assault on the land speed record.

The record bid will take place on Hakskeen Pan, Northern Cape Province, South Africa, in 2012.

Wing Cmdr Green is writing a diary for the BBC News Website about his experiences working on the Bloodhound project and the team's efforts to inspire national interest in science and engineering.

DOING SOME MATHS

One thing we want to know about the run site for the Bloodhound Supersonic Car (SSC) is "How flat is it?" - or perhaps more accurately "How bumpy is it?"

I've driven on it in a hire car and it looks and feels flat - but a small undulation at 80-plus mph could be a huge bump at 800-plus mph.

We need to know if there are going to be any nasty surprises out there at 1,000 mph.

We also need to know how hard the suspension and chassis will have to work.

How much suspension travel will we need if there are any significant bumps? What sort of frequencies will the suspension see? Are any of these frequencies anywhere near the "natural" frequencies of the car and suspension? (in which case the motion of the car could become uncontrollable - which would be bad!).

Once all of the desert preparation work is completed, some time next year, we will check the whole track from end to end for any bumps that might cause us trouble. In the meantime, we need to have a rough idea of how flat (or bumpy) the surface is, to help with designing the car and its suspension.

Thanks to the fantastic level of help that we are getting in South Africa, we now have some data.

The Northern Cape team surveyed a 2km stretch of desert, adjacent to the our chosen track, to give us an indication of vertical variation over this length.

Why 2km? We want to make sure that we do not have any inputs near the suspension frequency of the car (around 2.5Hz: see the vehicle technical spec for more detail).

If we look for inputs at a tenth of this rate or more, we will spot any possible problems. A tenth of 2.5 is 0.25Hz - a quarter of an oscillation a second, or one every four seconds.

At 1,000 mph, the car will travel 1,800m in four seconds - so call it 2km. And how many points do we need along this 2km strip? We chose a nominal upper limit of 10 Hz for this study, and the effects only start to get interesting above 200mph - say 100m/s. 10Hz at 100m/s means a survey point every 10m.

Hence we have the survey task. Measure the vertical height (as accurately as possible) at 200 points, 10m apart in a 2km long straight line, on a representative part of the desert.

This is one of the tasks that our South African team carried out recently and we are hugely grateful to them. It may not be glamorous, but it's a key part of getting this right. Turning up in South Africa with a suspension that doesn't work is really not a good look - and this will help to make sure that we don't.

These results are surprising, in a very good way. Total variation over the 2km strip? It's tiny - just 61mm. This is a very flat desert.

The above graph may look like the surface of the Moon, but just imagine stretching that line out until it's 2,000m long - it would be so flat that it would look perfect.

In fact, as we've seen on the pan, it is so flat that it looks perfect. Now we know just how flat. It's another indication that Hakskeen Pan is the ideal place for the world's first 1,000 mph race track.

For anyone interested in Darwinism:

Charles Darwin's ecological experiment on Ascension isle

By Howard Falcon-Lang Science reporter, BBC News

A lonely island in the middle of the South Atlantic conceals Charles Darwin's best-kept secret.

Two hundred years ago, Ascension Island was a barren volcanic edifice.

Today, its peaks are covered by lush tropical "cloud forest".

What happened in the interim is the amazing story of how the architect of evolution, Kew Gardens and the Royal Navy conspired to build a fully functioning, but totally artificial ecosystem.

By a bizarre twist, this great imperial experiment may hold the key to the future colonisation of Mars.

The tiny tropical island of Ascension is not easy to find. It is incredibly remote, located 1,600km (1,000 miles) from the coast of Africa and 2,250km (1,400 miles) from South America.

Its existence depends entirely on what geologists call the mid-Atlantic ridge. This is a chain of underwater volcanoes formed as the ocean is wrenched apart.

However, because Ascension occupies a "hot spot" on the ridge, its volcano is especially active. A million years ago, molten magma explosively burst above the waves.

A new island was born.

Back in 1836, the young Charles Darwin was coming to the end of his five-year mission to explore strange new worlds and boldly go where no naturalist had gone before.

Aboard HMS Beagle, he called in at Ascension. En route from another remote volcanic island, St Helena, Darwin wasn't expecting much.

"We know we live on a rock, but the poor people of Ascension live on a cinder," the residents of St Helena had joked before his departure.

But arriving on Ascension put an unexpected spring in Darwin's step.

Professor David Catling of the University of Washington, Seattle, is retracing Darwin's travels for a new book. He told the BBC: "Awaiting Darwin on Ascension was a letter from his Cambridge mentor, John Henslow.

"Darwin's voyage of discovery had already caused a huge sensation in London," he explained.

"Henslow assured him that on his return, he would take his place among the great men of science."

At this fantastic news, Darwin bounded forth in ecstasy, the sound of his geological hammer ringing from hill to hill.

Everywhere, bright red volcanic cones and rugged black lava signalled the violent forces that had wrought the island.

Yet, thinks Professor Catling, amid this wild desolation, Darwin began to hatch a plot.

Out of the ashes of the volcano, he would create a green oasis - a "Little England".

Island Eden

Darwin's great buddy was Joseph Hooker, the intrepid botanist and explorer.

Only a few years after Darwin's return, Hooker was off on his own adventures, an ambitious slingshot around Antarctica aboard HMS Erebus and Terror. Mirroring Darwin's voyage, Hooker called in on Ascension on the way home in 1843.

Ascension was a strategic base for the Royal Navy. Originally set up to keep a watchful eye on the exiled emperor Napoleon on nearby St Helena, it was a thriving waystation at the time of Hooker's visit.

However, the big problem that impeded further expansion of this imperial outpost was the supply of fresh water.

Ascension was an arid island, buffeted by dry trade winds from southern Africa. Devoid of trees at the time of Darwin and Hooker's visits, the little rain that did fall quickly evaporated away.

Egged on by Darwin, in 1847 Hooker advised the Royal Navy to set in motion an elaborate plan. With the help of Kew Gardens - where Hooker's father was director - shipments of trees were to be sent to Ascension.

The idea was breathtakingly simple. Trees would capture more rain, reduce evaporation and create rich, loamy soils. The "cinder" would become a garden.

So, beginning in 1850 and continuing year after year, ships started to come. Each deposited a motley assortment of plants from botanical gardens in Europe, South Africa and Argentina.

Soon, on the highest peak at 859m (2,817ft), great changes were afoot. By the late 1870s, eucalyptus, Norfolk Island pine, bamboo, and banana had all run riot.

Back in England, Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution were busily uprooting the Garden of Eden.

But on a green hill far away, a new "island Eden" was being created.

Life on Mars

Yet could Darwin's secret garden have more far-reaching consequences?

Dr Dave Wilkinson is an ecologist at Liverpool John Moores University, who has written extensively about Ascension Island's strange ecosystem.

He first visited Ascension in 2003.

"I remember thinking, this is really weird," he told the BBC.

"There were all kinds of plants that don't belong together in nature, growing side by side. I only later found out about Darwin, Hooker and everything that had happened," he said.

Dr Wilkinson describes the vegetation of "Green Mountain" - as the highest peak is now known - as a "cloud forest". The trees capture sea mist, creating a damp oasis amid the aridity.

However, this is a forest with a difference. It is totally artificial.

Such ecosystems normally develop over million of years through a slow process of co-evolution. By contrast, the Green Mountain cloud forest was cobbled together by the Royal Navy in a matter of decades.

Dr Wilkinson exclaimed: "This is really exciting!"

"What it tells us is that we can build a fully functioning ecosystem through a series of chance accidents or trial and error."

In effect, what Darwin, Hooker and the Royal Navy achieved was the world's first experiment in "terra-forming". They created a self-sustaining and self-reproducing ecosystem in order to make Ascension Island more habitable.

Wilkinson thinks that the principles that emerge from that experiment could be used to transform future colonies on Mars. In other words, rather than trying to improve an environment by force, the best approach might be to work with life to help it "find its own way".

However, to date, scientists have been deaf to the parable of Ascension Island.

"It's a terrible waste that no-one is studying it," remarked Wilkinson at the end of the interview.

Ascension Island's secret is safe for years to come, it seems.

And now a BBC article about physicists and football:

Greatest free-kick 'was no fluke' say physicists

By Victoria Gill Science reporter, BBC News

Physicists have explained one of football's most spectacular goals.

Brazilian Roberto Carlos's 1997 free-kick against France curved so sharply that it left goalkeeper Fabian Barthez standing still and looking puzzled.

Now, a study published in the New Journal of Physics suggests that the long-held assumption that the goal was a fantastic fluke is wrong.

A French team of scientists discovered the trajectory of the goal and developed an equation to describe it.

They say it could be repeated if a ball was kicked hard enough, with the appropriate spin and, crucially, the kick was taken sufficiently far from goal.

Roberto Carlos scored his wonder goal during the inaugural match of the Tournoi de France, a friendly international football tournament that was held in France ahead of the 1998 World Cup.

Follow the curve

Many pundits referred to it as "the goal that defied physics", but the new paper outlines the equation that describes its trajectory exactly.

"We have shown that the path of a sphere when it spins is a spiral," lead researcher Christophe Clanet from the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris told BBC News.

Dr Clanet described this path as a "snail-shell shaped trajectory", with the curvature increasing as the ball travels.

Because Roberto Carlos was 35m (115ft) from the goal when he kicked the ball, more of this spiral trajectory was visible. So the apparently physics-defying sharp turn of the ball was actually following a naturally tightening curve.

Dr Clanet and his colleague David Quere were studying the trajectory of bullets when they made their sporting discovery.

They used water and plastic balls with the same density as water to "simplify the problem".

Long flight

This approach eliminated the effects of air turbulence and of gravity and revealed the pure physical path of a spinning sphere.

"On a real soccer pitch, we will see something close to this ideal spiral, but gravity will modify it," explained Dr Clanet.

"But if you shoot strongly enough, like Carlos did, you can minimise the effect of gravity."

The crucial aspect of the wonder strike, according to the scientists, was the distance the ball had to travel to beat Fabian Barthez.

"If this distance is small," said Dr Clanet, "you only see the first part of the curve.

"But if that distance is large - like with Carlos's kick - you see the curve increase. So you see the whole of the trajectory."

And a video clip I found:

To anyone looking at this thread, I am having major broadband connection problems and only get a very temporary connection for a few minutes at best. I have cancelled my contract with Orange as they are not prepared to send an engineer out (even though they previously had promised one)  - they don't accept that only having a total of an hour' usability in the last 4 days represents a problem. I am moving to Virgin, but it will be a week or so before this is done.

So for the time being, I am not able to post much if anything here.

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

In the meantime, an intermission

i'll see if I can post the odd story as at present I have some broadband connection.Again from the BBC

Mars may not be lifeless, say scientists

By Katia Moskvitch Science reporter, BBC News

Carbon-rich organic molecules, which serve as the building blocks of life, may be present on Mars after all, say scientists - challenging a widely-held notion of the Red Planet as barren.

When Nasa's two Viking landers picked up and examined samples of Martian soil in 1976, scientists found no evidence for carbon-rich molecules or biology.

But after the Phoenix Mars Lander discovered the chlorine-containing chemical perchlorate in the planet's "arctic" region in 2008, scientists decided to re-visit the issue.

They travelled to the Atacama Desert in Chile, where conditions are believed to be similar to those on Mars.

After mixing the soil with perchlorate and heating it, they found that the gases produced were carbon dioxide and traces of chloromethane and dichloromethane - just like the gases released by the chemical reactions after the Viking landers heated the Martian soil more than three decades ago.

Surprising result

They also found that chemical reactions effectively destroyed all organic compounds in the soil.

"Our results suggest that not only organics, but also perchlorate, may have been present in the soil at both Viking landing sites," said the study's lead author, Rafael Navarro-González of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City.

But despite the excitement about the finding, the researchers warn it is too early to conclude that the Red Planet has ever had life.

"This doesn't say anything about the question of whether or not life has existed on Mars, but it could make a big difference in how we look for evidence to answer that question," said Chris McKay of Nasa's Ames Research Center, California.

He explained that organics can come from either biological and non-bio sources - many meteorites that have fallen on Earth have organic material.

Perchlorate, an ion of chlorine and oxygen, could have been present on Mars for billions of years and only manifest itself when heated, destroying all the organics in the soil.

When scientists originally examined the data from the Viking probes, they interpreted the chlorine-containing organic compounds as contaminants from cleaning fluids carried on the spacecraft.

It is not yet clear whether the organic molecules are indigenous to the Red Planet or have been brought by meteorites.

This will be one of the goals of upcoming missions to Mars. In 2011, Nasa is planning to kick off its Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, with the Curiosity rover designed to search for organic material on the planet.

And another one from BBC:

Insect brains 'are source of antibiotics' to fight MRSA

Cockroaches, far from being a health hazard, could be a rich source of antibiotics.

A study of locust and cockroach brains has found a number of chemicals which can kill bugs like MRSA.

Scientists hope these could become a powerful new weapon to boost the dwindling arsenal of antibiotics used to treat severe bacterial infections.

The research was announced at a meeting of the Society for General Microbiology.

The researchers discovered nine different chemicals in the brains of locusts and cockroaches, which all had anti microbrial properties strong enough to kill 90% of MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) while not harming human cells.

Cockroaches have a reputation for tenacity and for thriving in dirty environments.

Simon Lee from Nottingham University is the author of the study. He said that it is this capacity to live in dirty, infectious conditions that mean insect brains contain these kinds of compounds.

"They must have some sort of defense against micro organisms. We think their nervous system needs to be continuously protected because if the nervous system goes down the insect dies. But they can suffer damage to their peripheral structures without dying," he told BB News.

He hopes the compounds could go on to be used to treat multi drug resistant infections like E. Coli and MRSA which are becoming increasingly difficult to treat using some of the most powerful antibiotics available to medicine.

"A kill rate of 90% is very very high, and I diluted the substance down so there was only a minute amount there. Conventional antbiotics reduce the number of the bacteria and let your immune system cope with the rest. So to get something with such a high kill rate that is so potent at such a low dose is very promising," he told BBC News.

The compound would need years of testing for safety and efficacy before any drugs developed from them could go on the market.

And another one (Trying to catch up from not being able to in recent days) - more BBC:

Reading Arabic 'hard for brain'

By Katie Alcock Science reporter, BBC News

Israeli scientists believe they have identified why Arabic is particularly hard to learn to read.

The University of Haifa team say people use both sides of their brain when they begin reading a language - but when learning Arabic this is wasting effort.

The detail of Arabic characters means students should use only the left side of their brain because that side is better at distinguishing detail.

The findings from the study of 40 people are reported in Neuropsychology.

When someone learns to read Arabic they have to work out which letters are which, and which ones go with which sounds.

It is the ability to tell letters apart that seems to work differently in Arabic - because telling the characters apart involves looking at very small details such as the placement of dots.

Professor Zohar Eviatar, who led the research team, said: "The particular characteristics of Arabic make it hard for the right hemisphere to be involved. When you are starting something new, there is a lot of [right hemisphere] involvement."

Clearer differences

The researchers looked at 40 university students. Some of the students only spoke Hebrew, while some also spoke and read Arabic well.

In order to work out which side of the brain reads letters, the researchers flashed letters for a 10th of a second to one side of a screen or the other.

When the eyes see something for just a short time, and it is at one side of a screen, only one brain hemisphere is quick enough to process the image.

The team measured how fast and how accurate the students were when they tried to tell letters apart, first in Hebrew and then in Arabic.

All the students could read Hebrew well, and they all used both left and right hemispheres to tell Hebrew letters apart.

The same thing has previously been found with letters used in English.

Characters in English and Hebrew are easier to tell apart because there are clearer differences between them than there are in Arabic.

Sensitivity

When they looked at the students' reading of Arabic letters it gave the team a clue about why children find the language difficult to learn to read.

The Hebrew-only speakers behaved like children just starting to read most languages - they tried to tell Arabic letters apart, managed to do it slowly but made a lot of mistakes, and used both hemispheres of their brains.

The good Arabic readers, however, only used their left hemispheres to tell Arabic letters apart.

The researchers were intrigued by this and investigated further. They wanted to know why the right hemisphere was not working when reading Arabic letters, so they set a right hemisphere challenge.

They showed the students pairs of extremely similar Arabic letters - with just "local" differences - and letters that are more different - with "global" differences.

When the Arabic readers saw similar letters with their right hemispheres, they answered randomly - they could not tell them apart at all.

"The right hemisphere is more sensitive to the global aspects of what it's looking at, while the left hemisphere is more sensitive to the local features," says Professor Eviatar.

The team think this may give them some clues about what readers may be doing wrong when they begin to try to read Arabic.

Reading hope

Both young children and adults call on both hemispheres to help them learn a new task.

And using both hemispheres is the right thing to do when reading English or Hebrew - so children's learning strategies would be fine if they were reading another language.

But previous research has found that the right hemisphere is not that good at distinguishing small details, so readers starting to learn Arabic have to learn to focus on small details, which is not natural to them, but could help them shift to their left hemispheres.

Now the researchers want to compare new and highly expert Arabic readers in the hope of finding out what their brains are doing when they look at letters.

Ultimately, they would like to work out how to teach Arabic reading better to children, including helping them to tell letters apart and how to remember which sound goes with which letter.

And another submerged story from the depths of the BBC:

New submarine in a class of its own

By Caroline Wyatt Defence correspondent, BBC News, Faslane

HMS Astute is half submerged, its dark fin looming above the waters of the Clyde.

Even from a distance, the UK's newest and most powerful attack submarine looks formidable - a vessel you would rather not encounter in the murkiness of the ocean depths.

Even if you did, you would be unlikely to know it was there until it was too late. HMS Astute, the first of its class, marks a step change in capability for naval defence in anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare.

It is the stealthiest sub ever built in the UK, able to sit in waters off the coast undetected, listening to mobile phone conversations or delivering the UK's special forces where needed.

The 39,000 or so acoustic panels which cover its surface mask its sonar signature, meaning it can sneak up on enemy warships and submarines alike, or simply lurk unseen and unheard at depth.

The submarine can carry a mix of up to 38 Spearfish heavyweight torpedoes and Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise missiles, able to target enemy submarines, surface ships and land targets, while its sonar system has a range of 3,000 nautical miles.

When we arrive on the jetty at Faslane, the most essential supplies are being loaded onto HMS Astute ahead of its next sea trials.

Box after box of chocolates, rice, and the ingredients for curries and other meals are being hauled on board by crane for the crew of 98, to keep them going through their long days and nights at sea.

HMS Astute itself should never need refuelling over the next 25 years, thanks to the latest nuclear-powered technology which means it can circumnavigate the world submerged.

It even creates the crew's oxygen from seawater as it sails, meaning that the air on board is no longer heavy with diesel fumes, as submariners used to complain of older vessels. The only limit to how long it can stay underwater is the amount of food on board, enough for 90 days at sea.

Hi-tech specifications

"She brings a whole new capability for the 21st Century. The technological difference to her predecessors is fantastic, so we have a huge sense of pride serving on her," says the commanding officer of HMS Astute, Commander Andy Coles, who used to command the Trafalgar-class HMS Turbulent, which will be decommissioned next year.

We climb down a steep vertical ladder to enter the control room of HMS Astute.

It is packed full of the latest technology, although much of it is switched off for security reasons while we film inside.

So we see rows of blank screens, one of which is apparently the 21st Century version of the periscope. HMS Astute is the first Royal Navy submarine not to have a traditional periscope, instead using electro-optics to capture a 360-degree image of the surface.

Chief Petty Officer Gavin Clelland, 46, has been in the Navy for 30 years, and is in training for his new role looking after the nuclear reactor.

"We do a lot of simulator training, and we are there to deal with things should they go wrong." If for any reason they do, he says, there is a diesel back-up so that the boat can still make it home to safety.

HMS Astute is the length of a football pitch, just under 100 metres or 323ft long.

Bunk space

Yet while it may be the UK's biggest attack submarine to date, space is still at a premium inside. Even the captain's cabin is hardly luxurious, although at least he has it to himself.

It is the first submarine in which all crew members have their own bunk to sleep in during their "six hours on, six hours off" shift pattern, rather than having to "hot-bunk". Traditionally, two submariners on opposite shifts often had to share the same bunk.

Engineering technician Jamie Bell, 25, shows us his sleeping space. It is one of three bunks stacked from floor to ceiling, in a tiny room barely big enough to squeeze through to the next row.

A small curtain offers each submariner some privacy - vital when more than 20 men share this one room.

Jamie says he has no problem with the six months they may spend at sea without daylight or fresh air, often with no access to communications with their families back at home. The only way to tell the time of day is by the meals being served.

"It's not too bad once you get into a routine," he says. "You just concentrate on your time off, and work hard when you're on duty. It's busy, and then you enjoy the six hours off."

He has never suffered from claustrophobia, he says, "although you do find out at an early stage if you do."

Morale booster

Four meals a day are prepared for the crew, with one at midnight for the night shift, in a kitchen that is just as economical with space.

Chef Mark Laing is one of three going out on the current sea trials.

"We do a roast on a Sunday, and we have theme nights such as Mexican nights. Food is very important for morale on board, and you have to keep changing the menu.

"Everybody wants to be the chef's friend," he smiles. "It's a good job."

The official commissioning of Astute into service last week, overseen by the boat's patron, the Duchess of Cornwall, was also something of a morale boost for a Royal Navy that is likely to face steep cuts as part of the current defence review.

HMS Astute is the first of four in its class, with the initial three now expected to cost £3.9bn, a hefty chunk of the annual £38bn defence budget.

As the base port of all the Navy's submarines from 2016, Faslane will be home to the whole Astute class, which will also include Ambush, Artful and Audacious, already under construction by BAE Systems at Barrow-in-Furness. The Royal Navy would like another three.

Costly contract

Yet HMS Astute's long journey to its berth on the banks of the Clyde has not always run smoothly.

The initial studies for what would become the Astute class were given the go-ahead in 1991, and in 1997 the MoD agreed to place a £2bn order for three submarines.

But technological and programme difficulties left the project running more than four years late and more than £1bn over the original budget, although the work on the four submarines currently guarantees almost 6,000 UK jobs.

The contract has, however, ensured that the know-how for building such a complex attack submarine was not lost to UK industry, as it might well have been without that investment.

BAE Systems had to re-establish the UK's strategic capability to design, build, test and commission nuclear-powered submarines following the 10-year gap between the Vanguard and Astute classes.

As we climb the ladder to leave this billion-pound underwater world, blinking at the daylight outside, the crew are keen to focus on the positives.

"What we have today is a world-beating piece of technology, which gives us a fantastic capability of huge utility to the UK over the next thirty years," says Commander Andy Coles.

"Before they were first built in the UK in 1901, submarines were condemned as 'underhand, underwater and damned un-English'. But the critics soon changed their minds when the war started."

And finally in this splurge of postings from the BBC:

First 'intelligent' stamp put on sale by Royal Mail

The Royal Mail has launched what it claims is the world's first "intelligent" stamp.

Viewing the stamp via a smartphone takes users to a related webpage.

Also required is the Junaio image recognition application - versions of which have been made for iPhone and Android smartphones.

The Royal Mail said intelligent stamps "mark the next step in the evolution of our stamps, bringing them firmly into the 21st Century."

'New world'

Those viewing the stamp, part of the Royal Mail's latest Great British Railways edition, via the Junaio app will be directed to a short film showing Bernard Cribbins reading Auden's famous poem The Night Mail.

"WH Auden wrote the Night Mail poem in 1936 for the Post Office's own blockbuster film of the same name, which has for years remained in the hearts and minds of many," said Mr Cribbins.

The application is another example of augmented reality in which real world scenes or situations are annotated and enhanced by pairing them with web-based data. One AR app for smartphones lets owners use the camera on the gadget to effectively see through buildings to find the nearest tube station.

The Royal Mail's Philip Parker said: "This is the first time a national postal service has used this kind of technology on their stamps and we're very excited to be bringing intelligent stamps to the nation's post.

"Royal Mail's special stamps mark key events and anniversaries in the UK's heritage through a programme which aims to be both educational and informative.

"Through intelligent stamp technology, our stamps will open up to a whole new world of information, interest and fun to collectors and the millions of people who will receive them on letters in the coming months alike."

The technology will also be made available on selected future special stamps.

Another bee story from the bee bee cee:

Inbred bumblebees 'face extinction threat'

By Mark Kinver Science and environment reporter, BBC News

Some of the UK's rarest bumblebees are at risk of becoming extinct as a result of inbreeding, research suggests.

The lack of genetic diversity is making the bees more vulnerable to a number of threats, including parasitic infection, say scientists in Scotland.

They warn that some populations of bees are becoming increasingly isolated as a result of habitat loss.

The findings are being presented at the British Ecological Society's annual meeting at the University of Leeds.

Lead researcher Penelope Whitehorn, a PhD student from Stirling University, said the study of moss carder bumblebees (Bombus muscorum) on nine Hebridean islands, off the west coast of Scotland, offered an important insight into the possible consequences of inbreeding.

"The genetic work had already been carried out on these bumblebees, so we knew that the smaller and more isolated populations were more inbred than the larger populations on the mainland," she told BBC News.

"And as it was an island system, it could work as a proxy for what could occur on the mainland if populations do become isolated from each other as a result of habitat fragmentation."

The study is believed to be the first of its kind to investigate inbreeding and immunity in wild bees.

Uncertain future

Ms Whitehorn found that, although the inbreeding did not seem to affect the bees' immune system directly, it did make the insects more susceptible to parasitic infection.

"We found that isolated island populations of the moss carder bumblebee with lower genetic diversity have an increased prevalence of the gut parasite Crithidia bombi," she explained.

"Our study suggests that as bumblebee populations lose genetic diversity the impact of parasitism will increase, which may increase the extinction risk of threatened populations."

She added that the populations of the bees on the islands were "quite healthy because the habitat was so good", but inbreeding did have a range of other consequences, such as the production of infertile males.

"If inbreeding occurs on mainland Britain, where the habitat is not so good, then species may well be threatened," Ms Whitehorn suggested.

Other studies of invertebrates have found other costs as a result of inbreeding, such as a loss of general fitness in the species in question.

Habitat loss is resulting in populations of bees becoming more and more isolated from their neighbours, effectively leaving them as island populations.

Ms Whitehorn cited the example of the short-haired bumblebee (Bombus subterraneus), which finally became nationally extinct in the late 1980s when a parasitic infection placed increased pressure on the remaining populations, which were already vulnerable as a result of fragmented habitats.

To date, recent attempts to re-introduce the population back into the UK from New Zealand - where it had been introduced from Britain in the late 19th Century, have not been successful.

The Bumblebee Conservation Trust said efforts to conserve bumblebees were vital as the creatures played a key role as pollinators, especially when it came to wild flowers and commercial crops.

The UK currently has 24 species of bumblebee, after seeing two species become nationally extinct in recent decades.

Of the remaining species, one quarter have been identified as being in need of conservation to prevent them from disappearing from the British landscape.

Although at present I have a broadband connection, it is extremely unreliable. I am switching over from Orange (via BT line) to Virgin cable, which should be in a week's time, so any postings I make between now and then may be intermittent.

Another windy story from the BBC:

Huge growth at largest wind farm

A massive expansion is to take place at Europe's largest onshore wind farm, which is situated in East Renfrewshire.

ScottishPower Renewables is to add another 75 turbines to Whitelee wind farm on Eaglesham Moor by 2012.

This will bring the number of turbines on site to 215 - raising electricity generating capacity by two thirds.

The 140 turbines currently at the wind farm, to the south of Glasgow, can produce enough electricity to power 180,000 homes.

The expansion will see its generating capacity increase from 322MW to 539MW - enough to power about 300,000 homes.

Since the site began producing electricity in 2008, ScottishPower Renewables has secured further planning consent - in May and December 2009 - to expand.

'Major project'

The growth will see 69 Alstom ECO 100 turbines added, each with a 3MW capacity - greater than the current 2MW models.

Six ECO 74 turbines with 1.67 MW capacity each will also be added.

Simon Christian, UK director of ScottishPower Renewables, said: "The agreement with Alstom means that work will start shortly on this major extension at Whitelee wind farm, and we expect to be generating electricity by 2012.

"By itself at 217MW, the extension would be one of the largest onshore wind farms in the UK, so we are starting another major construction project in Scotland.

"Whitelee wind farm is already the largest onshore wind farm in Europe and this extension pushing the overall capacity to 539MW will make it one of the largest in the world."

Mr Christian said the extension project would also provide up to 200 jobs.

Pacman is alive and gobbling up the universe. More from the BBC:

Dwarf galaxies gobbled by their giant neighbours

Astronomers have spotted the tell-tale signs of so-called dwarf galaxies being digested by bigger spiral galaxies.

Spiral galaxies are known to grow by swallowing their diminutive neighbours; as this process occurs, the dwarf galaxies become severely distorted.

An international team have now observed the characteristic signs of this process occurring in distant galaxies, beyond our cosmic neighbourhood.

The findings are published in the Astronomical Journal.

The researchers say the findings could shed further light on the evolution of galaxies.

As dwarf galaxies are digested by spirals, they form tendril-like structures and so-called stellar streams - long filaments of stars produced by the stretching action of tidal forces.

Astronomers have been observing such events in our immediate cosmic neighbourhood, known as the "Local Group" of galaxies, for more than a decade.

But the Local Group, with its three spiral galaxies, is much too small a sample to determine how common this process might be in the rest of the Universe.

David Martínez-Delgado from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany and colleagues carried out a survey of spiral galaxies at distances of up to 50 million light-years from Earth.

They discovered the tell-tale signs of spiral galaxies eating dwarfs - the first time this has been observed in galaxies beyond the Local Group, according to the researchers.

Remarkably, the results were obtained with the telescopes of ambitious amateur astronomers.

For their observations, the researchers used telescopes with apertures between 10cm and 50cm, equipped with commercially available CCD cameras.

The telescopes are robotic (meaning they can be controlled remotely), and are located at two private observatories in the US and one in Australia.

The researchers now plan to use the data to test computer predictions of the frequency of features such as tendrils and stellar streams.

A couple of vitamin stories from the BBC. Firstly vitamin B and Alzheimers:

Vitamin B 'puts off Alzheimer's'

By Jane Hughes Health correspondent, BBC News

A new study suggests high doses of B vitamins may halve the rate of brain shrinkage in older people experiencing some of the warning signs of Alzheimer's disease.

Brain shrinkage is one of the symptoms of mild cognitive impairment, which often leads to dementia.

Researchers say this could be the first step towards finding a way to delay the onset of Alzheimer's.

Experts said the findings were important but more research was needed.

The study, published in the journal Public Library of Science One, looked at 168 elderly people experiencing levels of mental decline known as mild cognitive impairment.

This condition, marked by mild memory lapses and language problems, is beyond what can be explained by normal ageing and can be a precursor to Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia.

Half of the volunteers were given a daily tablet containing levels of the B vitamins folate, B6 and B12 well above the recommended daily amount. The other half were given a placebo.

After two years, the rate at which their brains had shrunk was measured.

The average brain shrinks at a rate of 0.5% a year after the age of 60. The brains of those with mild cognitive impairment shrink twice as fast. Alzheimer's patients have brain shrinkage of 2.5% a year.

The team, from the Oxford Project to investigate Memory and Ageing (Optima), found that on average, in those taking vitamin supplements, brain shrinkage slowed by 30%.

In some cases it slowed by more than 50%, making their brain atrophy no worse than that of people without cognitive impairment.

'Protecting' the brain

Certain B vitamins - folic acid, vitamin B6 and B12 - control levels of a substance known as homocysteine in the blood. High levels of homocysteine are associated with faster brain shrinkage and Alzheimer's disease.

The study authors believe it was the B vitamins' effect on levels of homocysteine that helped slow the rate of brain shrinkage.

The study author, Professor David Smith, said the results were more significant than he had expected.

"It's a bigger effect than anyone could have predicted," he said, "and it's telling us something biological.

"These vitamins are doing something to the brain structure - they're protecting it, and that's very important because we need to protect the brain to prevent Alzheimer's."

He said more research was now needed to see whether high doses of B vitamins actually prevented the development of Alzheimer's in people with mild cognitive impairment.

The Alzheimer's Research Trust, which co-funded the study, also called for further investigation.

"These are very important results, with B vitamins now showing a prospect of protecting some people from Alzheimer's in old age," said chief executive Rebecca Wood.

"The strong findings must inspire an expanded trial to follow people expected to develop Alzheimer's."

B vitamins are found naturally in many foods, including meat, fish, eggs and green vegetables.

Experts are advising against taking higher than recommended levels in the light of these findings.

Chris Kennard, chair of the Medical Research Council's Neurosciences and Mental Health Board, said: "We must be cautious when recommending supplements like vitamin B as there are separate health risks if taken in too high doses.

"Further research is required before we can recommend the supplement as a treatment for neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's."

And secondly:

Vitamin 'may help prevent' spina bifida

By Eleanor Bradford BBC Scotland Health Correspondent

Scientists have begun a study to determine if an everyday vitamin supplement could help prevent one of Britain's most common birth defects.

Every year about 100 children in the UK are born with spina bifida and other neural tube defects.

Prospective mothers are advised to take folic acid as a way of preventing the condition.

However, scientists think the vitamin inositol, taken with folic acid, may be more effective at preventing defects.

Despite taking folic acid, also known as vitamin B9, some woman still go on to have children with neural tube defects.

Many more pregnancies are terminated when the condition is diagnosed by ultrasound scan.

Scientists think inositol could prevent these extra cases.

Tests on mice suggest it stimulates tissue growth in the embryo to prevent neural tube defects.

Dr Nick Greene is one of the researchers working on the project at the Institute of Child Health, University College London.

"Inositol is a naturally occurring molecule a bit like glucose", he said.

"It's in meat, fruit and vegetables.

"We don't think the women are deficient in inositol in their diets but from our experimental work we know inositol can stimulate cells in the developing embryo to proliferate more quickly, and that corrects the defect that would develop in spina bifida."

Anne Marie Hodkinson's daughter, Yasmin was born with spina bifida, despite the fact Anne Marie took folic acid for two years before getting pregnant.

She said: "We went for the 22-week scan, and it was quite a long scan, and at the end of it they told me that there was a problem.

"They said the baby had spina bifida.

"In all the books I had read, I read about spina bifida and then read about folic acid and turned the page, thinking, 'that's fine, done that', so it was quite a shock."

When Anne Marie decided to have another baby she enrolled in the clinical trial and is now seven months pregnant.

Although she doesn't know whether she's been taking inositol or a placebo, antenatal tests have shown her second baby is free from the condition.

"Everything's fine, which is lovely," she said.

"Had this little one had spina bifida as well, we're pro's now so it would have been fine, but nobody wishes that on anybody so it's lovely that this one's ok."

Dr Greene is now looking for more women from all over the UK who'd be willing to take part in the trial.

"We've invited women who've had a pregnancy affected by spina bifida or another neural tube defect and who are planning another pregnancy to contact us.

"The trial is conducted by telephone and e-mail so people don't need to come to us in London to take part."

Further trials are needed but if the evidence suggests inositol can prevent spina bifida, it could be combined with folic acid as a simple and cheap supplement available to all women of childbearing age.

Which came first, the chicken or the dinosaur - more from the BBC:

Hump-backed dinosaur may yield clues to origin of birds

By Katie Alcock Science reporter, BBC News

Spanish palaeontologists have uncovered a new dinosaur with what may be the earliest evidence of feather follicles.

The researchers, whose findings are published in Nature, located the fossils near Cuenca, central Spain.

They named the reptile Concavenator corcovatus, meaning "meat eater from Cuenca with a hump". The type of dinosaur that was found is known as a theropod.

Theropods are mainly known from the ancient southern landmass, Gondwana.

Over time, Gondwana and other ancient landmasses broke up, forming the continents we see today.

Recently a team from Cambridge, UK, and the US showed that the theropods may have originated in the Northern landmass, Laurasia.

The most primitive forms have been found in England and now Spain. These finds date from the Lower Cretaceous, somewhere between 100 and 146 million years ago

Theropods are a very important group of dinosaurs because it is from this group that birds are known to originate. Most theropods, like the one found in Spain, are meat-eaters, though some were omnivores.

"They are a very important group of dinosaurs because within this group there are the birds. This world would not be the same without birds. Birds are really a kind of specialised winged and flying theropod dinosaur," said Professor Jose Sanz of the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid.

The dinosaur's unusual skeleton included a hump over the ilium - where the hind legs join the spine - and around five bumps on the forearm.

These bumps closely resemble the attachment points for feathers found in modern birds, and might present evidence that feathers are much older, in evolutionary terms, than previously thought.

The fossil dates from a time period when feathers or feather-like appendages have been seen, but the dinosaur is from a branch of the evolutionary tree that is more primitive.

Although these bumps have been seen in dinosaurs before - including Velociraptor, it is interesting and new to find this characteristic in a dinosaur that is so far removed from either birds or previous known feathered dinosaurs.

The bumps are very similar to those in present-day birds, with just two differences. There are fewer bumps in the Concavenator and they are not in such a regular arrangement.

The team interpret these differences in evolutionary terms. They suggest that over evolutionary time the bumps could have evolved into the feather attachments that are found in modern birds.

The hump found on the dinosaur's spine is more of a mystery, however. Humps are common in dinosaurs, and can be used for heat regulation - when they might look like a kind of sail - for display, or for food storage.

The team cannot work out what this hump might be for, though.

It is probably not for heat regulation, since normally a hump of this type would need an extensive blood supply, and there would be evidence within the surrounding bone - the team did not find this.

Also, most previous dinosaur humps have been found around the shoulders or the centre of the back - this hump is further towards the tail.

My broadband was playing up again and is so unreliable that I'm having another splurge of articles whilst I have the chance. I'm moveing over to cable next Tuesday, so hopefully after that, things will be a lot better.

Another black hole mystery from the BBC:

Astronomers find evidence for unusual class of black holes

By Katia Moskvitch Science reporter, BBC News

Researchers say they may have found further evidence for the existence of an unusual type of black hole.

Using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, an international team of scientists studied the images of the most extreme ultra-luminous X-ray source, HLX-1.

They say the data about the distance and the brightness of the source shows that it may contain an intermediate-size mass black hole, located some 300 million light years away from Earth.

The results of the study have been published in the Astrophysical Journal.

A black hole is a region of space that has such an extremely powerful gravitational field that it absorbs all the light that passes near it and reflects none.

If confirmed, HLX-1 would be classified as an intermediate-type black hole - something astrophysicists suspected to exist, but for which there have been only tentative detections in the past.

Radiation question

The lead author Klaas Wiersema of the University of Leicester's department of Physics and Astronomy, said that after the earlier discovery of the very bright X-ray source, the astronomers "were very keen to find out just how far away it really is, so that we can work out how much radiation this black hole produces".

"We could see on images taken with big telescopes that a faint optical source was present at the location of the X-ray source, located near the core of a large and bright galaxy," he said.

"We suspected that this faint optical source was directly associated with the X-ray source, but to be sure we had to study the light of this source in detail, using the Very Large Telescope in Chile."

He said that the VLT was able to measure the precise distance to HLX-1 and the data from the telescope allowed the scientists to separate the light of the big, bright galaxy from that of the faint optical source.

"Much to our delight we saw in the resulting measurements exactly what we were hoping for: the characteristic light of hydrogen atoms was detected allowing us to accurately measure the distance to this object.

"This provided conclusive proof that the black hole was indeed located inside the big, bright galaxy, and that HLX-1 is the brightest ultra-luminous X-ray source known."

Galactic centre

HLX-1 is located in another galaxy some 300 million light years from our planet. The study also shows that the source is not a super-massive black hole.

Astronomers believe that the centres of most galaxies contain such super-massive black holes, and intermediate black holes might simply turn out to be their progenitors.

"Understanding how super-massive black holes form and grow is thus crucial to our comprehension of the formation and evolution of galaxies, which in turn goes part of the way to answering one of the really big questions: how did our own galaxy form and evolve?" said astronomer Sean Farrell, also of the University of Leicester.

This news from the BBC on one of the more contentious areas which many people have very strong feelings, so I am showing the article without comment:

EU tightens rules on welfare of lab animals

The EU has agreed on new rules aimed at reducing the number of animals used in lab experiments and tightening controls over such procedures.

Euro MPs backed the new EU directive after long negotiations and EU member states have two years to make it law.

Labs will have to get approval from national authorities for animal tests and if recognised alternatives exist then they must be used, the rules say.

Animal welfare groups say the directive still does not go far enough.

The UK-based anti-vivisection group BUAV called it "a missed opportunity".

"The dropped proposals include strong restrictions on the use of non-human primates, strong restrictions on re-using individual animals, and a clear ban on experiments which involve severe and prolonged suffering," it said.

But BUAV said it was "pleased, however, that the [European] Commission has clarified that non-animal alternatives have to be used wherever they are scientifically suitable".

The new directive, approved by the European Parliament on Wednesday, replaces EU rules on animal testing that dated back to 1986.

Now the new member states - mainly in Central and Eastern Europe - that joined the EU in 2004 and 2007, will have to embrace the new animal welfare standards.

The legislation imposes a general ban on the use of great apes, such as chimpanzees and gorillas, in scientific tests. But other primates such as macaques can still be used - a point on which the Commission was overruled by MEPs.

Measuring pain

The directive also sets out categories of pain, ranging from "mild" to "severe" - an innovation designed to prevent repeated suffering.

The re-use of animals will be allowed after tests involving "moderate" pain - though the Commission had proposed re-use only after tests classed as "up to mild" pain.

MEPs argued that re-use of animals helped reduce the total number of animals used. They were also concerned that Europe should not fall behind in research on chronic human ailments such as Alzheimer's.

According to EU data, about 12 million animals are used in EU countries' lab experiments each year.

The directive obliges national authorities to carry out regular inspections of labs that use animals - and some of the visits must be unannounced. The Commission will oversee these checks.

The animal protection group Humane Society International said the new directive would still not prevent "severe suffering" in certain types of animal testing.

But it voiced hope that other countries, including the US, would now "follow Europe's lead so that standards are improved globally".

Another astronomical story from the BBC:

Alien oceans could be detected by telescopes

By Pamela Rutherford Reporter, BBC News

The next generation of telescopes could reveal the presence of oceans on planets outside our Solar System.

Detecting water on Earth-like planets offers the tantalising prospect they could sustain life.

Scientists hope the relection of light, or "glint", from mirror-like ocean surfaces could be picked up by a US space telescope set for launch in 2014.

The research by US astronomers has been published in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Tyler Robinson at the University of Washington in Seattle is hoping this new technique could be used in the quest to find the Holy Grail for exoplanet astronomers - a possible sister to planet Earth.

"We're focussing on a class of extra-solar planets yet to be detected, so things comparable in size and composition to the Earth and similar distances from their central star as the Earth is from the Sun," he told BBC News.

The goal is to find something Earth-like in almost every sense of the world so we can even prove it has liquid oceans on its surface."

This kind of ocean could be the signature of a planet where life had developed in the same way as it did on our own planet.

Tyler Robinson hopes "glint" - the effect seen when light is reflected from an ocean's surface - may reveal the presence of Earth-like planets beyond our cosmic neighbourhood.

Beautiful sunsets

"The glint I'm talking about is pretty much the exact same thing when you talk about gorgeous sunsets over the ocean. With the sun low on horizon, sun beams come in and glance off the ocean surface which is acting like a mirror and you get these beautiful red sunsets."

This glint is more visible when a planet is in what's called a "crescent phase", similar to a crescent moon.

At the moment, clues like these tell-tale glint spots are vital to finding Earth-like planets because, at distances of 20 or 30 light-years away, astronomers are decades from being able to image the surface of these alien worlds.

"You would need to have a telescope that is absolutely humongous to make these kinds of measurements. It would have to be on the scale of the distance between Earth and Mars," Mr Robinson told BBC News

Scientists have already used the technique to confirm the prescence of a liquid methane ocean on Titan, Saturn's largest moon.

Tyler Robinson hopes the JWST could be used to help observe glint from exoplanets when it is launched in 2014. The JWST has been dubbed by some as the successor to Hubble and its job will be to peer into the early Universe and look for the formation of the first galaxies.

But the telescope would need a bit of extra help, he told BBC News.

"That on its own isn't quite capable of making these measurements. What we would need is an external occulter," Mr Robinson explained.

"This is a separate shield that you would launch into space that has the job of blocking the light from a star and by blocking that light it enables you to see the dim little planets that are orbiting around that star. "

As well as liquid water, another way life could be detected on exoplanets is through the presence of vegetation.

Chlorophyll, the green pigment in plant leaves, is very strongly reflective at near infrared wavelengths. This bright red appearance of vegetation at such wavelengths is known as the "red edge".

This has been suggested by some scientists as a way of detecting possible plant life on planets outside our Solar System.

This extremely expensive book is one which by reputation has to be a very strong contender for the most beautiful collection of drawings of birds in existence. Again from the BBC:

World's most expensive book goes up for sale

A rare copy of John James Audubon's Birds of America, billed as the world's most expensive book, is to go on sale at Sotheby's, it has been announced.

Only 119 complete copies of the 19th-century book are known to exist, and 108 are owned by museums and libraries.

A separate edition of the wildlife book sold for a record-breaking price of $8.8m (£5.7m) a decade ago.

The copy going under the hammer in December comes from the collection of the late Lord Hesketh.

It contains 1,000 life-sized illustrations of almost 500 breeds.

It took wildlife artist John James Audubon 12 years to complete his study.

He did so by travelling across America, shooting the birds. He would then hang them on bits of wire to paint them.

The artist then went to Britain to print the volumes and targeted the rich to buy copies.

Lord Hesketh's collection also includes a rare copy of Shakespeare's First Folio, which Sotheby's said is "the most important book in all of English Literature".

Of the 750 that were probably printed, only 219 are known to exist today.

The copy being offered for sale, which dates back to 1623, has a valuation of up to £1.5 million, and only has three pages missing.

It is one of only three textually complete copies to exist in private hands in a comparably early binding.

Letters written from Elizabeth I relating to Mary Queen of Scots are also going under the hammer at the sale, which takes place on 7 December.

David Goldthorpe, a senior specialist in Sotheby's books and manuscripts department in London, said: "To have all these items in one sale is remarkable; it's certainly never happened in my time, 15 years, and people who've been here longer can't recall it."

And a historical astronomical event from the BBC:

Halley's comet 'was spotted by the ancient Greeks'

By Paul Rincon Science reporter, BBC News

A celestial event seen by the ancient Greeks may be the earliest sighting of Halley's comet, new evidence suggests.

According to ancient writers, a large meteorite smacked into northern Greece between 466BC and 467BC.

The writers also described a comet in the sky at the time the meteorite fell to Earth, but this detail has received little attention, say the researchers.

Comet Halley would have been visible for about 80 days in 466BC, researchers write in the Journal of Cosmology.

New Scientist magazine reports that, until now, the earliest probable sighting of the comet was an orbit in 240BC, an event recorded by Chinese astronomers.

If the new findings are confirmed, the researchers will have pushed back the date of the first observation of Comet Halley by 226 years.

The latest idea is based on accounts by ancient authors and concerns a meteorite that is said to have landed in the Hellespont region of northern Greece in 466-467BC.

The space rock fell during daylight hours and was about the size of "a wagon load", according to ancient sources.

The object, described as having a "burnt colour", became a tourist attraction for more than 500 years.

Look west

In his work Meteorology, Aristotle wrote about the event about a century after it occurred. He said that around the same time the meteorite fell, "a comet was visible in the west".

Astronomer Eric Hintz and philosopher Daniel Graham, both of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, reconstructed the likely path of Halley's comet, to see whether it agreed with the ancient observations.

They calculated that Halley's comet could have been visible for about 80 days between early June and late August in 466BC - depending on atmospheric conditions and the darkness of the sky.

"It's tough going back that far in time. It's not like an eclipse, which is really predictable," co-author Eric Hintz, from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, told BBC News.

"But we feel fairly good about this. If the [sighting] in 240BC is accepted, this has a fairly solid possibility."

He added: "If accepted, this would be three orbits earlier [than the Chinese sighting]."

The reconstruction of the comet's path agrees with the ancient reports, which say the comet was visible for about 75 days.

The researchers point out that while the Chinese and Babylonians kept meticulous records of heavenly phenomena for centuries, the ancient Greeks did not.

Nevertheless, the Greek accounts do provide important information, say Graham and Hintz, such as the comet's period of visibility from Earth.

Asked whether it was possible that the meteorite fall and the pass by Halley's Comet could be linked, Dr Hintz was doubtful.

"it would be really neat if they were connected - if it was a piece of Halley's that fell. My feeling is that it was just a really cool coincidence," said Dr Hintz.

The researchers say that there remains the possibility that other ancient sightings of comets could be uncovered from Chinese and Babylonian records.

On a somewhat different note, I found this article from the Mail via the BBC:

And similarly an article from the Guardian through the BBC:

Good news for the British Musuem (more from the BBC):

Lord Sainsbury donates £25m to British Museum

A Conservative peer has donated £25m to the British Museum in what is thought to be the biggest gift to the arts for two decades.

The money, from Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover - a former chairman of the supermarket chain - will go towards a major redevelopment of the London museum's facilities.

It will help fund a new World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre.

A spokeswoman for the museum described the donation as "incredibly generous".

She said the gift was a "vital" part of a project which would "benefit future generations".

"This is an incredibly important project for the British Museum and has been planned for a long time," she said.

She said donations from other private donors and a government grant were also being used to fund the centre, which will include a state of the art conservation and science centre, with new science laboratories in which exhibits can be researched and restored.

The centre, which will cost over £125m, will also include a gallery to house temporary collections which can compete with other UK and international institutions.

The government has also awarded a £22.5m grant towards the centre.

The gift comes at a time when many cultural organisations are facing a funding squeeze amid financial cutbacks.

The Sunday Times reported Lord Sainsbury's gift was the biggest to the arts in Britain since philanthropist Sir Paul Getty pledged £50m to the National Gallery and £40m to the British Film Institute in 1985.

In the same year Lord Sainsbury and his brothers The Hon Simon Sainsbury and Sir Timothy Sainsbury financed the construction of the Sainsbury Wing at the National Gallery, which cost a total of about £50m and opened in 1991.

The Sunday Times said Lord Sainsbury's other donations include £10m for a recent renovation of Oxford's Ashmolean Museum and money for the Linbury studio theatre at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.

And a story from BBC Gloucester - very boring only a few miles away from where I live)

A surfer who holds the world record for distance surfing rode the Severn Bore in Gloucestershire for the first time.

Sergio Laus set the Guinness World Record of 10.1km (6.2 miles) for distance surfing in 2005 in Brazil and then 11.8km (7.3 miles) in 2009.

Hundreds of spectators stood on the banks at Minsterworth and watched as he fell off downstream.

A bore is a surge wave caused by the incoming tide being funnelled up the narrowing estuary.

Sergio Laus, from Brazil, said: "In the Amazon we surf in the middle of the jungle with some savage animals like crocodiles, piranhas, jaguars - you can be scared.

"But here it is very different - you don't have animals and the wave is a little small. In the Amazon we can ride waves of 18, 10 and 15 feet."

An Environment Agency spokesman, said: "Weather conditions were not great so some people said it was not as spectacular as it could have been."

The differences between the lowest and highest tide in one day can be more than 14.5 metres (47.5 ft).

These high or spring tides occur on several days in each lunar cycle throughout the spring and autumn.

Bores can range between one star, caused by a tidal range of 4.5m (14.8ft) to 4.6m (15ft), and five-star, caused by a tidal range of 5.4m (17.7ft) and above.

The Severn Estuary has the second highest tide in the world - the biggest is in China.

Another "four star" bore is expected on the Severn at 2214 BST and a "three star" bore is predicted on Saturday at 1041 BST.

A little story about a little stowaway (from the BBC):

Squirrel 'stowaway' on wildlife holiday cruise

Efforts are to be made to capture a red squirrel found on a wildlife holiday cruise boat.

The "stowaway" was thought to have fled to The Majestic Line's Glen Massan vessel following a territorial dispute with another squirrel, or being frightened by a bird of prey.

It has been on the Heritage and Wildlife of South Argyll Cruise since Monday morning.

The squirrel was spotted after the boat anchored in Loch Riddon.

It was first sighted by Canadian professional photographer Steve Boyton.

Good health

Initial efforts to catch the animal were unsuccessful.

Fresh attempts will be made to capture it on Friday morning when the cruise ends at the Holy Loch Marina.

Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park ranger Jim Downie will board the Glen Massan and lay traps.

He said he was optimistic that the squirrel would be caught unharmed and in good health.

Should his attempts prove successful, it will then be returned as close to the spot where the Glen Massan was anchored.

A touching story from the BBC:

Sensitive touch for 'robot skin'

By Jason Palmer Science and technology reporter, BBC News

"Artificial skin" that could bring a sensitive touch to robots and prosthetic limbs, has been shown off.

The materials, which can sense pressure as sensitively and quickly as human skin, have been outlined by two groups reporting in Nature Materials.

The skins are arrays of small pressure sensors that convert tiny changes in pressure into electrical signals.

The arrays are built into or under flexible rubber sheets that could be stretched into a variety of shapes.

The materials could be used to sheath artificial limbs or to create robots that can pick up and hold fragile objects. They could also be used to improve tools for minimally-invasive surgery.

Bounce back

In one approach, Ali Javey at the University of California, Berkeley, and his colleagues built up layers of criss-crossed nanometre-scale wires topped with a thin rubber sheet.

Together, the stack acts as what is known as a thin-film transistor, or TFT, with a pressure-sensitive layer on top.

The amount of electrical current running through the device is dependent upon how much pressure is exerted on the rubber sheet; more pressure allows more current to flow.

The team demonstrated the flexibility of their TFT stacks by bending them to a radius smaller than that of a pencil without changing the skin's performance.

"Javey's work is a nice demonstration of their capability in making a large array of nanowire TFTs," said Zhenan Bao of Stanford University, whose group demonstrated the second approach.

The heart of Professor Bao's devices is micro-structured rubber sheet in the middle of the TFT - effectively re-creating the functionality of the Berkeley group's skins with less layers.

"Instead of laminating a pressure-sensitive resistor array on top of a nanowire TFT array, we made our transistors to be pressure sensitive," Professor Bao explained to BBC News.

"Our microstructured rubber can bounce back to its original shape much faster and enable higher sensitivity," she added.

The overall flexibility of the Stanford group's skins appears to be lower, and Professor Bao concedes that to develop his group's approach further, better conductive rubber will be needed.

Nevertheless, both groups demonstrate that their skins can register a pressure in a tenth of a second, over a large range - from five grams per square centimetre to 40 times that high.

Those numbers rival the response of human skin, made with relatively inexpensive manufacturing techniques.

John Boland, a nanotechnologist from Trinity College Dublin, praised the two approaches in a critique for Nature Materials.

"Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of these studies is how they elegantly demonstrate that it is possible to exploit well-established processing technologies to engineer low-cost innovative solutions to important technical problems," he wrote.

However, he notes that there are still "significant opportunities for further innovation", such as reducing the distance between the sensors in the arrays to maximise the detail they could "feel", as well as improvements that could make large-area arrays possible and affordable.

This is a story from 2004 from the BBC which has resurfaced:

A diamond that is almost forever

Twinkling in the sky is a diamond star of 10 billion trillion trillion carats, astronomers have discovered.

The cosmic diamond is a chunk of crystallised carbon, 4,000 km across, some 50 light-years from the Earth in the constellation Centaurus.

It's the compressed heart of an old star that was once bright like our Sun but has since faded and shrunk.

Astronomers have decided to call the star "Lucy" after the Beatles song, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

Twinkle twinkle

"You would need a jeweller's loupe the size of the Sun to grade this diamond," says astronomer Travis Metcalfe, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who led the team of researchers that discovered it.

The diamond star completely outclasses the largest diamond on Earth, the 546-carat Golden Jubilee which was cut from a stone brought out of the Premier mine in South Africa.

The huge cosmic diamond - technically known as BPM 37093 - is actually a crystallised white dwarf. A white dwarf is the hot core of a star, left over after the star uses up its nuclear fuel and dies. It is made mostly of carbon.

For more than four decades, astronomers have thought that the interiors of white dwarfs crystallised, but obtaining direct evidence became possible only recently.

The white dwarf is not only radiant but also rings like a gigantic gong, undergoing constant pulsations.

"By measuring those pulsations, we were able to study the hidden interior of the white dwarf, just like seismograph measurements of earthquakes allow geologists to study the interior of the Earth.

"We figured out that the carbon interior of this white dwarf has solidified to form the galaxy's largest diamond," says Metcalfe.

Astronomers expect our Sun will become a white dwarf when it dies 5 billion years from now. Some two billion years after that, the Sun's ember core will crystallise as well, leaving a giant diamond in the centre of the solar system.

"Our Sun will become a diamond that truly is forever," says Metcalfe.

Now that's what I call a sparkler, El Loro.

And you can buy it on Ebay for a mere $500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 dollars.

And a BBC article about mosquitoes:

Ecological understanding of mosquitoes 'must catch up'

By Mark Kinver Science and environment reporter, BBC News

We need to learn more about the ecology of malaria-spreading mosquitoes to capitalise on molecular biology's recent advances, a top scientist says.

Charles Godfray, the British Ecological Society's president, said a lot was still unknown about Anopheles gambiae.

Evidence of insects becoming resistance to current treatments meant new methods had to be explored, he said.

But it required getting "into the field" to investigate the mosquitoes' ecology, he added.

Professor Godfray, from the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford, made the comments during a speech at the Society's annual meeting in Leeds.

"The general point I was making was that we have a number of really effective interventions that can reduce the burden of malaria today," he told BBC News.

"For example, using bed nets and spraying inside houses, and also attacking the malaria pathogen itself, such as using new drugs.

"But in both cases, there is a great worry about resistance and we have examples of insecticide and drug resistance already in Africa, so there is a feeling that we need to have further interventions up our sleeves."

Breakthrough hope

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), half of the world's population is at risk of malaria, and about 243 million cases led to an estimated 863 000 deaths in 2008, most of which where children in Africa.

Malaria is caused by Plasmodium parasites. The parasites are spread to people through the bites of infected Anopheles mosquitoes, called "malaria vectors", which bite mainly between dusk and dawn.

It is female mosquitoes that transmit malaria, as they feed on human blood, which they need to make their eggs.

Professor Godfray highlighted some of the novel methods of intervention that were being explored by researchers at the moment.

"We now have ways of making mosquitoes refractory to carrying malaria, but the problem is how to spread these and other beneficial genes through wild mosquito populations - we need what are called genetic drive mechanisms."

One is a project based at Imperial College London, headed by Professor Austin Burt, which is looking at how genes called homing endonuclease (HEG) can be used to manipulate Anopheles gambiae.

The so-called "parasitic" or "selfish" genes that can spread rapidly through mosquito populations even if they harm the host insect, giving HEGs the potential to introduce traits, such as sterility or an inability to transmit disease.

"Another project, which is being done largely out of the University of Queensland, in Australia - is led by Professor Scott O'Neill," said Professor Godfray.

"It is using a symbiotic bacteria that has a number of effects on the mosquito, interfering with its capacity to transmit viral diseases.

"It is also life-shortening, as it is very interesting that only a very small fraction of the mosquitoes live long enough to transmit diseases.

"So if you can just reduce the [lifespan], you can have a disproportionate effect on disease transmission."

'No magic bullet'

Professor Godfray went on to say that he thought the days when people held out hope that there would be a "magic bullet" to rid the world of malaria were gone.

Nowadays, he added, it was a matter of pursuing "integrated vector and disease control" in which a number of different of approaches where used in conjunction with one another.

"In order to do that, you need to understand the full population biology of the system," he observed.

"If you are trying to control the vector, and to a certain extent the disease, then it is an exercise in applied ecology, and you need to think as much about the ecology as you do about the molecular biology."

In Africa, the vast majority of malaria cases are transmitted by the Anopheles gambiae species and Professor Godfray said that there was still a lot to learn about the complex creature.

"We know they filter-feed on micro-organisms but we don't know what they like to eat the best.

"We know very little about the community ecology... and this is significant because if you were to knock it out then you want to know what would take its place.

"And we don't know enough, not for the want of trying, about the dispersal of the mosquitoes; how they move from one place to another."

He argued that a lot of pioneering and "wonderful work" had been done on the molecular and genetic side, and that the ecology side had to catch up.

"If it does not catch up, that is going to limit our ability to apply the molecular and genetic work," he warned.

In order for the two sides to become balanced, it was necessary to attract more ecologists into this field of research, Professor Godfray suggested, adding: "I'm afraid it boils down to resources."

At a time when the UK government is carrying out a wide ranging review of how public money is spent, the scientific community is not being spared.

Recently, Business Secretary Vince Cable used a speech to outline a plan for cuts to scientific research, saying: "there is no justification for taxpayers' money being used to support research which is neither commercially useful nor theoretically outstanding".

Professor Godfray, commenting on the prospect of UK research institutes receiving less investment, said that UK research already offered value for money when compared alongside other developed nations.

He added: "Much of what science does is for the public good: wealth creation, quality of life, etc - it is an investment in the future.

"It is trying to produce the knowledge and the skills to be an economically successful country and to address the huge challenges that face the globe.

"So, as many scientists are saying at the moment, you should be very careful about how you reduce funding in this area."

Ooooooooooohhhhh, hubby has an Ebay account.

But you would have to arrange the collection and delivery to your house, and that could be a bit difficult

A tiger tale from the BBC:

Pricetag set for tiger conservation

By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News

The cost of keeping tigers alive in the wild is about $80m (£50m) per year, say conservationists - but only about $50m (£30m) per year is being pledged.

The figures come from a new assessment that suggests targeting efforts in 42 selected breeding sites.

Building tiger populations in these sites would enable other areas to be re-populated later, the researchers report in the journal PLoS Biology.

About 3,500 tigers remain in the wild, and only about 1,000 breeding females.

Although conservation programmes are operating in some countries, notably India, the tiger has virtually disappeared from vast tracts of Asia where it used to live.

Once found from Turkey to the eastern coast of Russia, it is now concentrated in pockets of South and East Asia, though even here it is extinct in some countries such as Pakistan and down to fewer than 50 individuals in others, including Cambodia, China, Laos and Vietnam.

The animals are found in only about 7% of their historical range.

But the new study suggests conservation would benefit from concentrating efforts into still smaller areas - specifically, into 42 "source sites" that make up only about 6% of the tiger's current range, or about 0.5% of the area it used to span.

"The long-term goal is to conserve an Asia-wide network of large landscapes where tigers can flourish," said Nigel Leader-Williams from Cambridge University, one of the scientists on this study.

"The immediate priority, however, must be to ensure that the few breeding populations still in existence can be protected and monitored. Without this, all other efforts are bound to fail."

Summit issue

The figure of $82m per year is the cost of safeguarding and monitoring populations in these 42 key sites.

All but 10 lie in India, Sumatra and the eastern extremities of Russia.

"A number of these source sites are already in protected areas," noted John Robinson, executive vice-president for conservation and science with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

"However, in many of them the protection is weak, and it would not take much to push them over the edge," he told BBC News.

More than half of the figure is already being provided by the range states themselves, by international donors and by conservation groups.

But the shortfall is about $35m (£23m) - and unless the money is found, this study concludes the tigers will not endure across what remains of its range.

The big hope this year is the Tiger Summit, to be hosted by Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg.

Orignally slated for this week, it has been postponed until November in the hope of attracting a greater number of national leaders.

One of the facts they will consider is that there are now many more tigers in captivity than in the wild.

While that might seem to indicate how far the creature is from its natural place in the world, Dr Robinson prefers to find a glimmer of optimism.

"It says something about the fact that tigers can breed easily, if you can protect them," he said.

"They do this in captivity; and if we can protect them in the wild too, they can bounce back."

William Blake's The Tyger:

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night :
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears
And water'd heaven with their tears :
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger, Tyger burning bright
In the forests of the night :
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?