2013 News

Tuesday 31 December 2013 – Halton Arp has died

Astronomer Halton Arp has died in Munich, Germany, aged 86. He is perhaps best known for his Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies (1966), and his opposition to the Big Bang theory (an opposition which resulted from the evidence in the atlas). Wikipedia:

In 1966, Arp published the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, which contained photographs of 338 nearby galaxies that didn't fall into any of the classic categories of galaxy shapes. His goal was to produce a selection that modellers could then use in order to test theories of galactic formation. By testing against the collection, one could quickly see how well a particular theory stood up.

Friday 20 September 2013 – Commas save lives

Consider the difference between these two exclamations:

"Let's eat, Grandpa!"
"Let's eat Grandpa!"

Or these:

Mary loves cooking, her family, and her dog.
Mary loves cooking her family and her dog.

Make sure you know how to use commas correctly be reading this article.

Monday 20 May 2013 – Australian treasure hunt

It seems a treasure hunting expedition is planned for northern Austraila, where copper coins found on a beach in 1944 were identified as being about 1000 years old and from Africa. They finally came to the attention of anthropologist Ian McIntosh who understandably wants to go look for more – partly because of their archeaological value, and partly because it could rewrite the history books regarding who was in Australia and when.

To add to the somewhat piratical nature of the treasure hunt, the location where the coins were found is marked on an old map with an X and Aborigine legends tell of a secret cave near where the coins were found which "is said to be filled with doubloons and weaponry of an ancient era." Read more in this article.

Meanwhile, a certain other treasure still hasn't been found.

Tuesday 9 April 2013 – New section: Field Trips

A new section has been added for field trips.

Tuesday 9 April 2013 – Addition/Subtraction grids

10x10 grids are now available for addition and subtraction. The random numbers in the grids include negative numbers. Answers are included for each of the 7 addition and 7 subtraction grids.

Saturday 16 February 2013 – Meteor strike

The largest meteor strike in over a century has resulted in about 1200 injuries in Chelyabinsk, Siberia, Russia. The meteor exploded high up in the sky (perhaps as much as 70km up), causing a large extended flash of light. Many people went to look at what had caused the flash and were injured by broken glass from windows blowing out when the shock wave arrived a couple of minutes later. Up to 3,000 buildings were damaged, and all schools have been closed due to broken windows. Temperatures in the city are below freezing. More here.