Is Our Understanding of Gravity Fundamentally Wrong?

At a recent RAS National Astronomy Meeting, a team of astronomers headed by Hongsheng Zhao presented a radical paper on our understanding of gravity. First their theory suggests that the Milky Way and Andromeda collided 10 billion years ago and this would mean that our understanding of gravity is fundamentally wrong. However it would go a long way towards explaining the observed structure of the two galaxies.

In 2009, Zhao led An international team of astronomers that found a strange link between 'dark matter' and galaxies that suggests unknown force is acting on dark matter.

Zhao's research suggests that the interactions between dark and ordinary matter could be more important and more complex than previously thought, and even speculate that dark matter might not exist and that the anomalous motions of stars in galaxies are due to a modification of gravity on extragalactic scales.

 

The rest of the Daily Galaxy Article is Great, check it out HERE

Great Short of Russian ISS Personnel Moving A Soyuz Spacecraft to a New Parking Spot

Recently astronauts on the International Space Station spent 20 minutes moving a Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft around to a new parking spot to make room for a Soyuz TMA-11M, scheduled to show up at a later date.

When the Soyuz TMA-11m arrives, it will bring the compliment to nine which is remarkable due to the fact that the Shuttle is no longer flying.

Also an Olympic torch will arrive with the additional crew (not lit, no fires aboard the ISS) and it will also make a trip outside on a spacewalk.

What Would The US' Coastline Look Like If All The Polar Ice Melted

How would the coastline of the USA look like if all the planet's ice melted. Well, the bad news: New York, San Francisco, New Orleans and other cool cities would be completely gone, including  the entire state of Florida would disappear.

This According to the National Geographic's precise maps

Check out the complete article over at Gizmodo HERE  for some of the other coastlines around the world and how they would be affected by the melt.

BMU # 384 is now online

episode 384 of Beam Me Up is a very relaxed program this week.

After a short intro I play the theme music to the animated Iron Man.  From there I do a bit of Star Trek Trivia.  More general info instead of a specific program.  All in all though it was an
informative section.

From there it is over to the Beam Me Up Blog for some of this weeks news.  Like comets visible  early in the morning, plus info on many of the excellent short films that is out this week alone!

Next, the MAVEN Mars Atmosphere exploration space craft is still go for launch this month.

ABC has ordered 9 new episodes of Agents of Shield!

Scientific data that indicates that extended spaceflight can be hazardous to many bodily functions!

Finally the conclusion to Van Hall's What Makes a Thursty God on Fallons World?

Hope you enjoy this weeks program

Paul

Beam Me Up podcast download

Spacefarers Get Older Faster

How many science fiction stories, or for that matter how often have we seen in the movies that if you were rich and old you could go into space and live longer.  It was supposed to be easier on the cardie-vascular system, but that does not seem to pay out in real life.

In this IO9 article  going into space actually accelerates the aging process!  Here is what it says in black and white:

•  a new study shows that microgravity environments speed up biological aging and the onset of cardiovascular disease by affecting blood vessel cells.

We have known for some time that a micro-gravity environment promotes, muscle atrophy, bone density loss, immune response impairments - and now it would seem cardiovascular problems.    It has been known for some time that micro-gravity can damage  eyes and brain and can even cause something very much like idiopathic intracranial hypertension or brain swelling!

But aging?  Really?  Yep, according to a recent study by the Journal of Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology - micro-gravity can cause the accelerated aging of endothelial cells which line the inner surfaces of blood vessels.

 A research team from the Institute of Molecular Science and Technologies in Milan determined 

• analyzing experiments conducted on the International Space Station. They compared space-flown endothelial cells to cells cultured under normal gravity. They looked for differences in gene expression and in the profile of secreted proteins. The researchers discovered that the space-flown cells differentially expressed more than 1,000 genes 

Check out the complete article here