The concept of a collision is one of the most important ones in the Universe. A new life is created when a spermatozoid collides with an ovum, love is sparked when two individuals run into (collide with) each other, exotic subatomic particles are created upon a collision of protons/electrons/muons etc., an argument is born upon a collision of interests and opinions, finally the transformation of matter is initiated by collisions between atoms, molecules and photons. Collisions are all around us!

One of the things that makes astronomy so interesting and appealing is how visual it is.  Looking up at the night sky we instinctively want to connect the dots between the stars to draw swans and bears and teapots.  But it was the introduction of the telescope as a means of studying the heavens 400 years ago by Galileo that allowed us to realize there was more to those points of light than dots in the sky.  Bigger and bigger telescopes allowed us to see more detail of thes

Biosensor development demands creative solutions to a familiar challenge.  It is the challenge a picky child faces when she is presented with a steaming bowl of vegetable soup.

The child first identifies the target: peas.  “I do not like peas.”  Cautiously spooning through the dark broth, she scans the material in the bowl to determine if peas are present.  When the adults aren’t looking, the resourceful child might even poke her fingers into the liquid to assist with pea detection.  Characteristics of various components are distinguished by her eyes and fingers and interpreted by her brain for identification.  Orange, circular: carrots.  White, slimy: noodles.  Green, spherical: peas.  Peas.  “Yuck!!! Peas!!!”

Nearly all problems of global scale—climate change, clean water, sustainable agriculture, healthcare, and even war—list the availability and use of energy as either a principal cause or potential solution. Everywhere we turn, we are hounded by advertisements for “green” technologies such as hybrid cars, wind power, clean coal, smart grids, and compact fluorescent light bulbs. Some technologies promise to be “small steps” toward sustainability, while others make more ambitious claims. Realists agree, however, that a complete solution to the energy challenge will be a patchwork quilt of strategies that includes gains in efficiency, conservation, alternative sources of energy, and changes of habit (gasp!). This essay describes one possible piece of the puzzle: plastic solar cells.

General relativity’s wrong.  That’s a thought many of us don’t like to consider.  But what if there existed a nagging unresolved problem — say, for example, the eclipsing binary star DI Herculis — that worried at our certainty like a stray lump of mud worries Sherlock Holmes?

In fact, that's been the case for several decades . . . until now.

Our case begins over 30 years ago, when astronomer Edward Guinan (Villanova University) went to Iran to help set up an astronomy program and direct construction of the nation’s first high-powered telescope.  Once the telescope was up and running, he took advantage of Iran’s pristine skies to do some research.  He finished his project in 2 months.