Doctors have set out to test out-of-body experiences–specifically the memory of floating above one’s body–in resuscitation areas of hospitals.

To test this, the researchers have set up special shelving in resuscitation areas. The shelves hold pictures - but they’re visible only from the ceiling.

Dr Parnia works as an intensive care doctor, and felt from his daily duties that science had not properly explored the issue of near-death experiences.

Via BBC

Pre-Y2K panic had its moments, but it never left us wondering, “How would it feel to be devoured by a black hole?” Here’s a snippet from an ABC News article published 2 years ago, before the Large Hadron Collider was a hot topic:

Although scientists haven’t directly observed a black hole (since a black hole swallows light), they have observed the effect of a black hole on surrounding material. Astronomers say the first sign of a black hole’s approach would be subtle changes in the night sky. The gravity from a black hole would distort Earth’s orbit and we’d begin to notice differences in the orbits of other planets and stars in the galaxy.

If a rogue black hole ever closed in on our solar system and crept up next to Earth, the resulting havoc would seem like the wildest science fiction. Either Earth would career out of its orbit, spinning out of the solar system, or in the opposite direction, toward the sun, and we’d suffer a deadly warming.

Enter the LHC (via BBC):

…There are a small but significant group of naysayers who worry that the LHC is not 100% safe. Opponents say it is possible the collider could produce micro black holes and dangerous “strangelets”, and that catastrophic effects from these cannot be ruled out.

Afraid? This blog post on backreaction.blogspot.com should calm you down:

In short: If tiny black holes were produced because large extra dimensions did exist in the necessary number with the necessary radius, and if they did not evaporate within 10^-26 seconds as expected (Hawking evaporation is considered a very robust prediction, so this scenario is not confirmed by well founded theories), most of them would have such a high velocity that they escaped the gravitational field of the Earth for good. Even if they travelled straight through the centre of the Earth, the few nucleons they can hit wouldn’t change their momentum in an appreciable way.

Phewf!

TUCSON, Ariz. — Laboratory tests aboard NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander have identified water in a soil sample. The lander’s robotic arm delivered the sample Wednesday to an instrument that identifies vapors produced by the heating of samples.

“We have water,” said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA. “We’ve seen evidence for this water ice before in observations by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix last month, but this is the first time Martian water has been touched and tasted.”

(Full Story via NASA)

“In this handout image supplied by the European Space Agency (ESA) on July 16, 2008, The Echus Chasma, one of the largest water source regions on Mars, is pictured from ESA’s Mars Express.” (check out more images via Chicago Tribune)

A recent study shows that regardless of the fact that your child may not be watching TV, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the TV isn’t affecting their train of thought. 

Even if young children aren’t watching the TV, it may be distracting them from their play and depriving them of developing critical attention skills, a new study says.

 When children aged 3 and younger played in a room with a television on that was tuned to adult programming, they played for about 5 percent less time than when there was no background TV. More importantly, when there was no background TV, the children’s play was more focused with longer play episodes, the study found. 

“Background TV is a disruptive and distracting influence. Our evidence is that TV keeps the children from sustaining their attention at a time when developmentally, they’re beginning to organize their attention skills and sequencing behaviors”.

For more on this study check out this website

After spending more than a decade researching the effects of a cancer outbreak on the mating habits of tasmanian devils, scientists at the University of Tasmania in Australia have suggested that we’re “seeing evolution occurring before our eyes.” Something called devil facial tumor disease has severely shortened the species’ lifespan, forcing the critters to get it on younger and younger or risk dying before procreating. Researchers have proposed that this knee-jerk reaction is an evolutionary defense against the threat of extinction. (Prep yourself for that excuse the next time your girlfriend explains why she gave it up so early.)

Cartoon icon Taz was dismissive when reached for comment on his kin: “Just another instance of babies havin’ babies.”

(via PhysOrg.com)

Don’t ever accuse astronaut Buzz Aldrin of being part of a conspiracy to fake the Apollo Moon landing.

“Most physicists believe the risk of a cataclysm lies in the realms of science fiction. But there have been fears about the possibility of a mini-black hole - produced in the collider - swelling so that it gobbles up the Earth.”

Check out this photo of a rare uncontacted Amazon tribe. The picture was taken during a fly over of a remote area of the Amazon in Brazil’s Acre state, near the Brazil / Peru border. During the fly over, the natives began shooting arrows at the plane. Experts estimated that their are approximately 100 uncontacted tribes worldwide, with over half residing in the Amazon. For the full story check out the article and additional pictures here.For more information on how you can help to protect the rights of these indigenous people, check out Survival International.