SciByte

The BICEP discovery provides further indirect evidence for the existence of gravitational waves

the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Russell Hulse and Joseph Taylor for finding a double pulsar that strongly supported these "ripples" in spacetime

Before this announcement

we could measure the universe back to about a minute after the Big Bang.

The finding

has allowed us to study the universe when it was a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second old

tiny changes in temperature that were discovered by the COBE satellite (winning the 2006 Nobel Prize)

Alternative theories to inflation do not produce gravitational waves so

is strong evidence not only of the gravitational wave background but also inflation itself.

there has still been no direct detection of the gravitational radiation.

The first direct detection should follow in a few months

It is envisaged that the experiment will directly detect gravitational radiation coming from astrophysical sources from nearby galaxies

Mars shines in

coming up around 10 p.m. local time at the month’s end. It is near Spica

about two hours before dawn late in the month

Saturn is

close to local midnight by the end of the month. Saturn climbs to its highest point in the sky at dawn.

Venus

Venus

Mars reaches its highest point for the night

4 a.m. local Daylight Time in early March and 2 a.m. local Daylight Time in late march

in the east-southeast around 1 a.m. local Daylight Saving Time in early March, and roughly 11 p.m. local Daylight Time by the end of the month.

highest point in the sky shortly before morning dawn

y in the dawn; look southeast

s just 4° or 5° from lesser Spica to its lower right.

highest in the south around 4 a.m., with Spica now under Mars.

the eastern sky in early evening

. It crosses nearly overhead (for mid-northern observers) around 9 or 10 p.m

) rises around 1 or 2 a.m. and is high in the south at dawn

Regulus in Leo to the Moon's left during evening.

"Morning Star" in the dawn; look southeast

) rises around 10 or 11 p.m. now

5° to the right of

It crosses nearly overhead (for mid-northern observers) around 9 p.m.

rises around 1 a.m. and is highest in the south at dawn.

by 28°

Wednesday, February 19

Go out after 11 tonight, and low in the east-southeast, where the Moon has just risen or is about to rise, you'll find bright, fiery Mars with Spica to its right.

Thursday, February 20 As dawn breaks Friday morning the 21st, spot the waning Moon in the south with Saturn to its left. Off to their right are Mars and Spica (out of the frame above).

before and during dawn; look southeast. It's at its brightest this week.

rises around 10 p.m. now, a fiery blaze 5° or 6° to the right of icy Spica. The two of them are highest in the south around 3 or 4 a.m., with Spica now to Mars's lower right

Jupiter

high southeast in early evening. It crosses nearly overhead (for skywatchers at mid-northern latitudes) around 8 or 9 p.m.

Saturn

rises around midnight or 1 a.m. and is highest in the south at the beginning of dawn. By then it's far to the left of Mars and Spica,

Venus

rises around 10 p.m

6° to the left of icy Spica. The two of them are highest in the south around 3 or 4 a.m., with Spica now lower right of Mar

Jupiter

e high south during evening

Thursday, March 13

left of the Moon this evening for Regulus. It's the bottom star in the handle of the Sickle of Leo.

Venus

"Morning Star" before and during dawn; look southeast.

rises around 9 p.m

Mars (

Spica 5° or 6° to its right

highest in the south around 2 a.m., with Spica now lower right of Mars

Jupiter

overhead during evening

Saturn

rises around 11 p.m. and is highest in the south before dawn

that led doctors worldwide to rethink how fast and hard to treat infants born with HIV

In another AIDS-related development, scientists have modified genes in the blood cells of a dozen adults to help them resist HIV.

The Mississippi baby is now 3 1/2 and seems HIV-free despite no treatment for about two years

baby is still getting AIDS medicines, so the status of her infection is not as clear.

A host of sophisticated tests at multiple times suggest the LA baby has completely cleared the virus

The baby's signs are different from what doctors see in patients whose infections are merely suppressed by successful treatment,

don't know if the baby is in remission ... but it looks like

Doctors are cautious about suggesting she has been cured

Most HIV-infected moms in the U.S. get AIDS medicines during pregnancy, which greatly cuts the chances they will pass the virus to their babies

The LA baby was born

mother

was not taking her HIV medicines

Four weeks later, half of the patients were temporarily taken off AIDS medicines to see the gene therapy's effect

started the baby on them a few hours after birth. Tests later confirmed she had been infected, but does not appear to be now, nearly a year later

study in adults was prompted by an AIDS patient who appears cured after getting a cell transplant seven years ago

from a donor with natural immunity to the virus

Only about 1 percent of people have two copies of the gene that gives this protection

HIV usually infects blood cells through a protein on their surface called CCR5. A California company, Sangamo BioSciences Inc., makes a treatment that can knock out a gene that makes CCR5.

tested it in 12 HIV patients who had their blood filtered to remove some of their cells. The treated cells were infused back into the patients

The mom was given AIDS drugs during labor to try to prevent transmission of the virus

The Mississippi girl was treated until she was 18 months old, when doctors lost contact with her

Ten months later when she returned, they could find no sign of infection even though the mom had stopped giving her AIDS medicines.

a federally funded study just getting underway to see if very early treatment can cure HIV infection

About 60 babies in the U.S. and other countries will get very aggressive treatment that will be discontinued if tests over a long time, possibly two years, suggest no active infection.

The virus returned in all but one of them; that patient turned out to have one copy of the protective gene

knew that the virus was going to come back in most of the patients

the hope is that the modified cells eventually will outnumber the rest and give the patient a way to control viral levels without medicines

In 1926, the first US liquid-fuel rocket flight was launched by Robert Goddard in a field in Auburn, Mass. He thought stable flight could be obtained by mounting the rocket ahead of the fuel tank. The tank was shielded from the flame by a metal cone and was pulled behind the rocket by the lines for gasoline fuel and oxygen. The design worked, but did not produce the hoped-for stability. The rocket burned about 20 seconds before reaching sufficient thrust (or sufficiently lightening the fuel tank) for taking off. During that time it melted part of the nozzle. It took off to a height of 41-ft, leveled off and within 2.5 seconds hit the ground 184 feet away, averaging about 60 mph. The camera ran out of film, so no photographic record of that flight remains.

In 1781, English astronomer William Herschel detected Uranus in the night sky, but he thought it was a comet. It was the first planet to be discovered with the aid of a telescope. By 1787, he had also observed the Uranian satellites Titania and Oberon (11 Jan 1787), which were later given these names by his son, John Herschel.

In 1930, the discovery of a ninth planet was announced by Clyde W. Tombaugh at Lowell Observatory. It is only one-tenth as large as Earth and four thousand million miles away. The planet was named Pluto on 24 May 1930.

drug-resistant bacteria

oxadiazoles, was discovered in silico (by computer) screening

has shown promise in the treatment of MRSA in mouse models of infection

Researchers

screened 1.2 million compounds found that the oxadiazole inhibits a penicillin-binding protein,

The oxadiazoles are also effective when taken orally

there is only one marketed antibiotic for MRSA that can be taken orally.

a dinosaur species from North America

Closer comparison of the shin bone, upper jawbone, teeth, and partial tail vertebrae suggest

a new species name

had blade-shaped teeth up to 10 cm long, which indicates it may have been at the top of the food chain in the Iberian Peninsula roughly 150 million years ago

scientists estimate that the dinosaur could reach 10 meters long and weigh around 4 to 5 tons

The number of teeth, as well as size and shape of the mouth, may differentiate the European and the American

the mouth bones have a different shape and structure

is not the largest predatory dinosaur we know

With a skull of 115 cm, Torvosaurus gurneyi was however one of the largest terrestrial carnivores at this epoch

an active predator that hunted other large dinosaurs, as evidenced by blade shape teeth up to 10 cm

evidences of closely related dinosaurs suggest that this large predator may have already been covered with proto-feathers