"The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has imaged part of the Hickson Compact Group 7, or HCG 7 for short. This grouping is composed of one lenticular (lens-shaped) and three spiral galaxies in close proximity. In this image, one of the spirals dominates the foreground, with many more distant galaxies peppering the background. Observing tightly-knit galaxy groups like HCG 7 is important because they evolve in a different way from their more spaced-out counterparts in less crowded regions of the Universe.

A recent study using Hubble data analysed the star clusters in HCG 7. Three hundred young clusters and 150 globular clusters were charted, and their ages and distributions measured. The results suggest that the rate of star formation has been fairly steady through time, although quite high in the central regions. Additional studies, including searches for material between the galaxies, hint that the stars in the HCG 7 galaxies formed by converting their gas without any gravitational influences caused by merging with other galaxies. This is puzzling, as the galaxies are depleting their supplies of gas at a rate that suggests that they have merged in the past.

This raises the question of whether the group really has evolved serenely, or if there are mysterious processes at work that are yet to be understood. The currently known information is contradictory and an encouragement for further studies to discover the real story behind HCG 7..."

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-- "Featured in this sharp telescopic image, globular star cluster Omega Centauri (NGC 5139) is some 15,000 light-years away. Some 150 light-years in diameter, the cluster is packed with about 10 million stars much older than the Sun. Omega Cen is the largest of 200 or so known globular clusters that roam the halo of our Milky Way galaxy. Though most star clusters consist of stars with the same age and composition, the enigmatic Omega Cen exhibits the presence of different stellar populations with a spread of ages and chemical abundances. In fact, Omega Cen may be the remnant core of a small galaxy merging with the Milky Way. "

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"Everything you wanted to know about bug sex (but didn't bother to ask) is explained in a new book by insect expert Marlene Zuk. Sex on Six Legs: Lessons on Life, Love and Language from the Insect World, describes a world of small — but surprisingly sophisticated — insect behavior.

Insects are not mindless robots; they can learn just like other animals, says Zuk, a biologist at University of California, Riverside. "An ant who finds a food source will come back to recruit others to go to the same food source," she tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies. The ant that knows where to go will show the others what to do. "It looks like a parent teaching a child how to ride a bicycle. ... They steer the other individual and will actually wait for them to catch up and make sure they're going in the right direction."

The book answers all sorts of questions about insect behavior, including how wasps recognize each other, why some crickets remain silent and how bees debate. The book also details how insects reproduce — in every imaginable way..."

-- Giggity!

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"Neutrinos are downright weird!

Produced in prodigious numbers in the sun, supernovae, nuclear reactors and particle accelerators, neutrinos are extremely hard to detect because they hardly interact with other material at all.

If we think about photons from the sun hitting blacktop during the summer, it is quite obvious that they interact and that their energy is absorbed by the blacktop (making it hot to the touch).

But even though 10s of billions of neutrinos pass through each square centimeter of that blacktop per second, most of them do not interact. In fact most pass through the Earth and through much of the universe without interacting with anything.

In order to study these mysterious particles, we need large detectors, and we have to reduce backgrounds from cosmic rays by placing those detectors deep underground.

Under a mountain in southern China, a new experiment is trying to answer key questions about neutrinos and their impact on the world around us. The Daya Bay Neutrino Experiment started taking data this month, recording interactions of antineutrinos, a neutrino's counterpart with the same mass and opposite spin, as they travel away from powerful reactors of the China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group.

But before I explain Daya Bay in more detail, let me first provide a little background.

Neutrinos were first postulated by Wolfgang Pauli in the 1930s to explain the energy of radioactive decays, and were given their name, which means "little neutral one," by Enrico Fermi. But it was not until the 1950s that they were first discovered, in experiments by Frederick Reines and Clyde Cowan at nuclear reactors in Washington state and South Carolina, leading to a Nobel Prize in 1995..."

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"The Arctic may be the world's next geopolitical battleground. Temperatures there are rising faster than anywhere else in the world, and the melting ice will have profound consequences on the roof of the world, opening strategic waterways to shipping, reducing the ice cap on Greenland, and spurring a rush to claim rights to the wealth of natural resources that lie beneath. NPR examines what's at stake, who stands to win and lose, and how this could alter the global dynamic.

It appears as just a speck on the horizon, a slightly darker shape against a vista of Arctic ice. Soon enough, the ship's bridge makes the announcement: "Polar bear, starboard."

Crew and passengers onboard the CCGS Louis S. St.-Laurent, Canada's largest icebreaker, head to the open deck, binoculars and cameras ready, and watch as the bear lumbers from one ice floe to another, quickly dipping into the inky blue water and effortlessly pulling himself back up again.

Often, a bear will head toward the ship and gaze up at the people gazing down at it, head tilted to one side. The massive creatures don't demonstrate any fear, just curiosity.

That's likely because they rarely see anything like a ship passing through the Northwest Passage, a series of waterways winding through Canada's Arctic archipelago of 36,000 islands. It's midsummer and the first time the coast guard icebreaker, affectionately known as the Louis, is making its way through the ice-choked waters this season.It appears as just a speck on the horizon, a slightly darker shape against a vista of Arctic ice. Soon enough, the ship's bridge makes the announcement: "Polar bear, starboard."

Crew and passengers onboard the CCGS Louis S. St.-Laurent, Canada's largest icebreaker, head to the open deck, binoculars and cameras ready, and watch as the bear lumbers from one ice floe to another, quickly dipping into the inky blue water and effortlessly pulling himself back up again.

Often, a bear will head toward the ship and gaze up at the people gazing down at it, head tilted to one side. The massive creatures don't demonstrate any fear, just curiosity.

That's likely because they rarely see anything like a ship passing through the Northwest Passage, a series of waterways winding through Canada's Arctic archipelago of 36,000 islands. It's midsummer and the first time the coast guard icebreaker, affectionately known as the Louis, is making its way through the ice-choked waters this season..."

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-- Ah... Mother Russia.

"Compared to most other animals, humans are unusual in our tendency to help each other out. We donate to charity. We give blood. We show kindness to strangers, even when we stand to gain nothing in return. This behaviour is so odd that the natural question arises: are we alone in such selflessness? And if any animal could help to answer that question, it’s the chimpanzee, one of our closest relatives.

Dozens of scientists study the behaviour of chimps, looking at how these apes act towards their peers. But the results of these studies have been frustrating for many in the field. People who watch captive and wild chimps have documented hundreds of cases of seemingly altruistic behaviour. They have seen individuals helping each other to climb walls, consoling each other after fights, sharing food, risking death to save companions from drowning, and even adopting the babies of dead and unrelated peers. Anecdotes like these suggest that chimps, like humans, behave selflessly towards each other.

But experiments have often shown otherwise. In some studies, chimps choose to help their peers retrieve out-of-reach objects rather than doing nothing. But when chimps have a choice between two equal actions – say, cashing in a token that leads to personal gain versus another that also benefits a partner – they only looked out for themselves. One paper bore the title “Chimpanzees are indifferent to the welfare of unrelated group members”. Another concluded that “chimpanzees made their choices based solely on personal gain”.

Collectively, these studies championed a view of chimps as reluctant altruists, who only act selflessly in response to pressure, and who generally don’t help unfamiliar chimps, “even when they are able to do so at virtually no cost to themselves”. But Frans de Waal from the Living Links Centre at Emory University thinks that this portrait is wrong. He says, “The authors of these studies moved from not finding evidence for prosocial choice to thinking they had proven its absence.”

De Waal thinks that the previous tests handicapped the chimps by putting them in situations that masked their altruistic tendencies. They couldn’t communicate, they had to cope with complicated equipment involving levers, and they often sat so far apart that they had little understanding of how their choices affected their fellows. With his colleague Victoria Horner, de Waal designed a new experiment to account for these problems. And, lo and behold, chimps spontaneously helped their partners, even without any prompting..."

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"Homosexuality has a long way to go in the United States, but an even tougher, bleaker road to pass through in other parts of the world. Particularly in Africa and the Middle East where the Islamic law is held in extreme rigor, homosexuality is dealt with as an outright crime and is sometimes even punishable by death. Here are the worst forms of government-mandated punishment for simply being homosexual in different parts of the world..."

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"Established in 1995, Mexico's Cabo Pulmo Marine National Park is slightly more than 7,000 hectares of coastal waters in the Gulf of California, offshore from the small village of Cabo Pulmo. The park’s establishment followed a period of determined lobbying by the village’s 100 or so residents, who had become alarmed at overfishing and declines in the area’s marine life.

The reserve is no more than 5 kilometers (3 miles) wide and measures just 14 kilometers (almost 9 miles) north to south. And yet its impact on the marine life within it, such as these Devil Rays, has been profound – so much so that researchers have dubbed it “the most successful marine reserve in the world.”"

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"A spaceship that could carry the next wave of astronauts to an asteroid or beyond is being prepared for a new round of tests at a Lockheed Martin facility near Denver.

Engineers have attached a launch-abort system to the nose of the capsule and will subject the combined spacecraft to a series of experiments to see if it can withstand the rigors of blastoff, Lockheed Martin said Friday.

The launch-abort system, essentially a rocket attached to the nose of the capsule, could lift the capsule off its booster rocket and carry it to safety if a problem developed before or during launch.

Lockheed Martin, of Bethesda, Md., is building the capsule, called the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, under a $7.5 billion NASA contract issued in 2006.

The capsule was originally part of President George W. Bush's $100 billion program to return astronauts to the moon, called Constellation. President Barack Obama canceled the program last year, saying the U.S. would concentrate on developing new rocket technology instead.

Obama then revived the Orion portion of the program amid criticism that his plan lacked details and put U.S. space leadership at risk.

Orion doesn't yet have a destination. NASA has said it could service the space station in low Earth orbit or take four astronauts on more distant missions of up to 21 days. Lockheed Martin officials have said Orion could explore the far side of the moon, land humans on asteroids or take them to one of the moons of Mars, where they could control robotic instruments on the surface.

In the next round of tests, the capsule and launch-abort system will be subjected to sound vibrations at a Lockheed Martin facility in Waterton Canyon south of Denver..."

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"America's covert drone war on Al-Qaeda and the Taliban has killed up to 168 children in Pakistan over the last seven years, according to an independent study released Thursday.

The London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism said its research showed there had been many more CIA attacks on alleged militant targets, leading to far more deaths than previously reported.

It said 291 CIA drone strikes had taken place in Pakistan since 2004, eight percent more than previously reported, and that under President Barack Obama there had been 236 strikes -- one every four days.

The Bureau said most of the 2,292 to 2,863 people reported to have died were low-ranking militants, but that only 126 fighters had been named.

It said it had credible reports of at least 385 civilians and a possible upper limit of 775 civilians being killed. It said there were reports of at least 164 children being killed and possibly up to 168.

Washington does not confirm Predator drone attacks, but US officials privately describe the program as vital in the fight against Islamist militants and say that the strikes are accurate, limiting any collateral damage.

"Civilian casualties do seem to have declined in the past year. Yet the Bureau still found credible evidence of at least 45 civilians killed in some 10 strikes in this time," said the Bureau's report..."

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"AMC thinks that zombies should be heard and not seen. Read a few of the terrible money-saving ideas AMC reportedly threw at showrunner Frank Darabont, before throwing him out the door. A new report claims there was more to Darabont's precipitous departure than anybody realizes.

Just days after AMC trotted out Darabont at Comic-Con, who not only revved up thousands Walking Dead fans but also delivered one hell of a season two trailer, the studio allegedly fired the director, producer and writer of the most successful show they've ever had. What the hell happened?

The Hollywood Reporter has an interesting article about the what really happened behind the scenes on AMC's zombie show, and it's not encouraging. Simply put, Darabont was tossed out because he fought for a show he believed in. According to a collection of sources and insiders the aggressive budget cuts demanded by AMC for the second season of Walking Dead were the spark that started this whole mess. And wait until you read about the studio's ideas for making a cheaper series:

AMC's decision to cut the budget dated to the previous fall, when the network instructed Darabont to produce 13 episodes for a second season, up from six for the first season, for less money. Not only would the show get a lower budget, but AMC also decided that Walking Dead would no longer reap the benefit of a 30 percent tax credit per episode that came with filming in Georgia. Now the network was going to hold on to that money.

At the time, a source says, the show's producers decided not to get into a confrontation. "To have a fight over a number when they didn't know what the show was going to do didn't make sense," says this source. But when Walking Dead began to break AMC records, those involved figured that a negotiation would take place and the cuts might be reduced..."

-- Well damn... Should have seen this coming. Way to destroy one of the best shows ever on TV...

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"Scientists say they have found the first evidence that giant sea reptiles - which lived at the same time as dinosaurs - gave birth to live young rather than laying eggs.

They say a 78 million-year-old fossil of a pregnant plesiosaur suggests they gave birth to single, large young.

Writing in Science, they say this also suggests a degree of parental care.

The fossil, the first of a pregnant plesiosaur found, is at the US's Los Angeles County Natural History.

After being excavated from a ranch in Kansas, US, the 5m-long fossil skeleton Polycotylus latippinus lay for two decades in the basement of the Los Angeles County museum waiting to be chiselled from its rocky casing.

Immature skeleton

Two years ago when researchers began to piece the bones together they quickly realised that they were in fact dealing with two separate animals; an adult plesiosaur and a smaller juvenile.

The study's authors report that the juvenile was unlikely to have been eaten by the larger reptile because its tiny bones showed no evidence of bite marks, and its soft, immature skeleton suggested an animal only two-thirds of the way through its development.

For more than 200 years palaeontologists have speculated about how these colossal cretaceous animals reproduced.

Many believed the plesiosaur was too cumbersome to drag itself up the beach to lay eggs, and so must have given birth to live young.

"[The find] provides the first direct evidence for live birth in plesiosaur," said palaeontologist Adam Smith from the Thinktank Centre, Birmingham Science Museum..."

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