Is it just me, or does this photo look like a collection of dishes filled with M&M candies?
Artist’s conception of calcium ions traveling down the accelerator at a
high velocity toward the rotating californium target. Photo courtesy of
the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Public Affairs office. Click here for a brief
video of the process.
That was my first thought when I flipped to the Science section of
today’s New York Times and saw the picture (and accompanying story; registration required).
What, I wondered, was the scientific hook for
those melt-in-your-mouth goodies this time? Something to do with the
impending Halloween trick or treating, no doubt.
Wrong. Those aren’t M&Ms. They are an artistic representation of
calcium, with 20 protons, being accelerated into californium, with 98
protons, to produce the heaviest element ever seen in a laboratory. Dubbed Element 118 (20 protons plus 98 protons; even I can do that
math!), its discovery was announced by Russian and American scientists who created
it.
Given Element 118’s weightiness in scientific circles, I suppose my
initial misidentification of it as a chocolaty tidbit wasn’t too off
the mark. I know M&Ms have certainly contributed to the mass (or massive, as the case may be)
concerns of many of us!
Happier Hubble fans: The Hubble Space
Telescope’s highest-resolution camera, which encountered a glitch three
weeks ago, is back in operation. That’s great news for all of us who love the Hubble’s images, such as this spectacular "light echo." You can find more in this photo gallery.
The Space Telescope Science Institute, which operates the scope, says an
open circuit was the problem, probably caused by a bit of space dust
that got lodged in a relay.
The STSI essentially flipped the relay on and off via software commands
and that cleared out the dirt. Now if I could just make the dust
disappear from my furniture by toggling a light switch a couple of
times!
UFO sighted in Washington, D.C.! In this case, the acronym stands for Unintelligible Federal Obfuscation.
At least, that’s the way fellow tax blogger taxalicious sees it. He
certainly isn’t star-struck by the Ways and Means latest tax-writing
effort. In fact, given the language of the Tax Technical Corrections Act of
2006, taxalicious suspects that it was written by members of Congress
who were abducted by aliens, who then fed the lawmakers the bill’s convoluted
and indecipherable text.
If only it were that simple.
Rather, technical corrections are just
part of our legislative process. Such bills are regularly introduced to
iron out problems created inadvertently when folks started dealing with
previously enacted tax (and other) measures.
Sometimes the ill effects that have to be corrected are not even that
unforeseen. When I was in D.C., there were times when a lawmaker or
staff member would find a potential problem, but rather than hold up a
bill, especially if the issue was just a small part of a larger measure
and time was tight, they would note that it would be taken care of in
technical corrections.
Want to help shape this latest batch of tax-law corrections? The Ways
and Means Committee wants your help. Really. It says so in
this
release.
So give the bill a
look see and tell them what you think … if you can understand it.
