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I’m a total fan and supporter of science and have made some drastic decisions in my life that would probably make my friends go pale when I tell them. Being a science buff and a blogger at the same time, I thought it would be great to add some “haunted” touch to science for this year’s Halloween. Happily, I came across an article that would just fit the idea and so I’ve compiled a summary of it here and linked to the original source with complete description at the bottom of this post. Not really paranormal but I guess the number 13 should do the trick.

13 Things that don’t make sense…

1. The Placebo Effect - is it just the brain or is it biochemistry?
2. The Horizon Problem - when checking out the cosmic microwave background (CMB) it seems that at some point in time, things were allowed to travel at faster than the speed of light.
3. Ultra energetic cosmic rays - where do these strong cosmic particles come from?
4. Belfast homeopathy results - does homeopathy really work?
5. Dark matter - it seems to be the best bet in explaining why the galaxies are not flying apart but do they really exist?
6. Viking’s methane - is there really life on Mars?
7. Tetraneutrons - the standard model of particle physics say then can’t exist but how come they came up in a laboratory experiment?
8. The Pioneer anomaly - what caused Pioneer 10 and 11 to veer of course by as much as 400,000 kilometers?
9. Dark energy - could this be the reason why the universe is still expanding at ever faster speeds?
10. The Kuiper cliff - where did all the rocks go? Could it be a big tenth planet?
11. The Wow signal - is this 37 second radio frequency from space a “Hello” message from an advanced civilization?
12. Not so constant constants - yes, they say constants don’t change but what would you say if it seems otherwise?
13. Cold fusion - the solution to all the world’s energy problems?

Full details of each of these 13 points can be found at http://space.newscientist.com/article/mg18524911.600

Happy Halloween!

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Comet enthusiasts and skywatchers, just in case you don’t know it yet, a comet suddenly appeared in the night sky in the constellation Perseus. It wasn’t there before October 24 but on said date, it suddenly shone as if Perseus is adorned with a new yellowish-white star bright enough (Magnitude 2.5 approx) to be seen with the naked eye. In fact I was able to spot it easily with no binoculars even with the bright full moon in the sky.

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If you’re ever thinking how those pair of eyes on your head got started then you’re in good luck because scientists at the University of California discovered where it all started. Believe it or not, the eyes we have today began it’s evolutionary journey about 600 million years ago in an aquatic animal called a Hydra. These lowly animal developed light-receptive genes call “opsins” which is basically the origin of animal vision.

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