] The discovery was made by chance by two biochemists
] conducting research into drugs for cancer and Alzheimer's
] in a medical laboratory at Vanderbilt University,
] Nashville, Tennessee.

Thought this was neat that two guys at vandy in nashville may have found a way to make a blue rose.

Telegraph | News

] City officials were so concerned about the potentially
] dangerous properties of dihydrogen monoxide that they
] considered banning foam cups after they learned the
] chemical was used in their production.
]
] Then they learned that dihydrogen monoxide - H2O for
] short - is the scientific term for water.

Nice....

sacbee.com -- AP State Wire News -- City falls victim to Internet hoax, considers banning items made with water

] Semen makes you happy. That's the remarkable conclusion
] of a study comparing women whose partners wear condoms
] with those whose partners don't.
]
] The study, which is bound to provoke controversy, showed
] that the women who were directly exposed to semen were
] less depressed. The researchers think this is because
] mood-altering hormones in semen are absorbed through the
] vagina. They say they have ruled out other explanations.
]
] "I want to make it clear that we are not advocating that
] people abstain from using condoms," says Gordon Gallup,
] the psychologist at the State University of New York who
] led the team. "Clearly an unwanted pregnancy or a
] sexually transmitted disease would more than offset any
] advantageous psychological effects of semen."

This could explain a lot.

Semen acts as an anti-depressant

Museum security guards stood by nervously Thursday as curators -- joking they hoped the gem's storied curse wouldn't rub off -- allowed a reporter and photographer to hold the diamond briefly after it was removed from its case for scientific study.

What does it feel like to hold such a priceless gem, one of the most famed in the world?

The first thought that comes to mind is "Wow!"

It's like holding a bit of ancient India, the French Revolution, Georgian England and Gilded Age America in one magnificent moment.
You cradle the 45.5-carat stone -- heavier than its translucence makes it appear -- turning it from side to side as the light flashes from its facets, knowing it's the hardest natural material yet fearful of dropping it.

Once part of the French crown jewels, the fabled gem is now the star of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. It normally resides in a special protective display case in a secure room.

For the testing it was taken to a museum laboratory, reachable down winding corridors and through three locked doors. It was only the second time in 20 years the Hope has been removed from its necklace setting, where it is surrounded by bright clear diamonds that intensify its blue color.

National Gem Collection Curator Jeffrey Post ordered the lights turned off and focused an ultraviolet beam on the Hope Diamond. Then he switched off the beam and, in pitch dark, the diamond glowed bright orange-amber.

It's that strong color, which lasts for several seconds after the diamond is exposed to ultraviolet light, that intrigues scientists. What causes the gem to fluoresce remains a mystery. Post speculates it's related to chemical impurities that give it that blue color.

But the Hope Diamond has inspired legends over the years and some may prefer those to sheer science.

Some say, for instance, that the glowing color reflects the blood of royalty spilled in the French Revolution and the trail of bad luck said to have followed the stone over many years -- including the bankruptcy of the Hope family for whom it is named and the death of the young son of later owner Evalyn McLean.

Hope Diamond glows with mystery

] To gather new strains, Sulakvelidze need only drop a
] bucket into Baltimore's Inner Harbor. The waters of the
] Chesapeake Bay, of which the harbor is an inlet, have
] enough exchange with the Atlantic that he can find a
] phage for almost any species of bacteria, he says. If one
] doesn't work, he simply refills his bucket and looks for
] another that does.
]
] "This upgradability is one of the unique qualities of
] phages," Sulakvelidze adds. "Developing a new antibiotic
] takes 10 years and God knows how many millions of
] dollars."
]
] As he puts it, "Mother Nature runs the best genetic
] engineering lab out there. No institution or company can
] match it."

Wired 11.10: How Ravenous Soviet Viruses Will Save the World

] Armed with inexpensive, mass-produced gems, two startups
] are launching an assault on the De Beers cartel.
]
] Next up: the computing industry.
]
] By Joshua Davis
]
] Aron Weingarten brings the yellow diamond up to the
] stainless steel jeweler's loupe he holds against his eye.
] We are in Antwerp, Belgium, in Weingarten's marbled and
] gilded living room on the edge of the city's gem
] district, the center of the diamond universe. Nearly 80
] percent of the world's rough and polished diamonds move
] through the hands of Belgian gem traders like Weingarten,
] a dealer who wears the thick beard and black suit of the
] Hasidim.
]
] "This is very rare stone," he says, almost to himself, in
] thickly accented English. "Yellow diamonds of this color
] are very hard to find. It is probably worth 10, maybe 15
] thousand dollars."
]
] "I have two more exactly like it in my pocket," I tell
] him.
]
] He puts the diamond down and looks at me seriously for
] the first time. I place the other two stones on the
] table. They are all the same color and size. To find
] three nearly identical yellow diamonds is like flipping a
] coin 10,000 times and never seeing tails.
]
] "These are cubic zirconium?" Weingarten says without much
] hope.
]
] "No, they're real," I tell him. "But they were made by a machine
] in Florida for less than a hundred dollars."

Wired 11.09: The New Diamond Age

] Scientists are wrestling with individual atoms to develop
] molecule-sized computers, tiny cancer-fighting robots
] that travel the bloodstream ... and stain-resistant
] trousers.

Wired News: Get Ready for New 'Nano' Products

] Australia (CNN) -- Ever wanted to wish upon a star? Well,
] you have 70,000 million million million to choose from.
]
] That's the total number of stars in the known universe,
] according to a study by Australian astronomers.
]
] It's also about 10 times as many stars as grains of sand
] on all the world's beaches and deserts.
]
] The figure -- 7 followed by 22 zeros or, more accurately,
] 70 sextillion -- was calculated by a team of stargazers
] based at the Australian National University.
]
] Speaking at the General Assembly of the International
] Astronomical Union meeting in Sydney, Dr Simon Driver
] said the number was drawn up based on a survey of one
] strip of sky, rather than trying to count every
] individual star.
]
] The team used two of the world's most powerful
] telescopes, one at the Anglo-Australian Observatory in
] northern New South Wales state and one in the Canary
] Islands, to carry out their survey.
]
] Within the strip of sky some 10,000 galaxies were
] pinpointed and detailed measurements of their brightness
] taken to calculate how many stars they contained.

Mind you - this is only the universe visible to earth! Who knows what that figure might really be?

QUICK! Someone register "sextillion.com" before the pr0n sites or squatters catch on. DOH! Too late!!

LB

Astronomers pick a sky high number

] During 50 years of communist rule in former Yugoslavia,
] the Croatian island of Vis remained an inaccessible naval
] base lost in the middle of the Adriatic.
]
] The islanders eked a living from fishing and services for
] the Yugoslav military. Tourism, which in today's Croatia
] generates some $4.0 billion in revenues a year, came much
] later to the island than it did elsewhere on the Adriatic
] coast.
]
] There are no big socialist-style hotels here, some 12
] years after Croatia left Socialist Yugoslavia and fought
] an independence war with its ethnic Serb minority and the
] Yugoslav army.
]
] The place looks more like an early 20th century
] fishermen's settlement and, with some luck, it may stay
] that way.
]
] The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has designated Vis as one
] of the 10 last paradises on the Mediterranean and is
] taking steps to preserve its pristine beauty and
] wildlife, while giving locals a chance to make some money
] in the process.

Lost Mediterranean island deemed wild paradise

] A joint Australian- New Zealand research voyage carrying
] leading Australian, New Zealand and other international
] scientists to explore deep sea habitats and biodiversity
] in the Tasman Sea is expected to uncover new marine
] species and habitats. The NORFANZ research voyage will
] explore deep sea habitats around seamounts and abyssal
] plains around Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands through to
] northern New Zealand .

Be sure to check out the "Creature Feature" part of this. There are five pages of interesting pictures and descriptions of what they found.

NORFANZ Overview