Weekly Brainwave

First proof that infinitely many prime numbers come in pairs

20 May 2013 13:21:42 CDT

It's a result only a mathematician could love. Researchers hoping to get "2" as the answer for a long-sought proof involving pairs of prime numbers are celebrating the fact that a mathematician has wrestled the value down from infinity to 70 million.

Take 70 percent off test score submissions and join Mensa for less in May!

20 May 2013 13:21:42 CDT

Many young Mensa members are receiving media attention nationwide. The only way for potential members who are under the age of 14 to be evaluated for membership is by submitting prior test scores from one of the 200 intelligence tests we accept. For the month of May, we will offer 70 percent off of the prior evidence review fee. That's only $12 for taking the first step toward becoming a Mensa member. To take advantage of this offer, print off the application (located at www.us.mensa.org/testscores) to be sent in with your prior test scores, write in MAYPE13 on the application, and then follow the instructions on how to submit your information. Although this offer is in response to young members in the news, please note there is no age restriction on who may participate in this promotion. You may also find a complete list of the test scores we accept at www.us.mensa.org/testscores. This offer is valid from now through May 31.

University of Arizona-led asteroid mission is a go

20 May 2013 13:21:42 CDT

OSIRIS-REx, the $1 billion asteroid sample return mission led by the University of Arizona, reached a major milestone on May 16: The project passed the agency-level confirmation review called Key Decision Point-C, or KDP-C. KDP-C authorized continuation of the project into the next phase of development, giving the team the authority to proceed toward launch in 2016.

Growing a microgarden

20 May 2013 13:21:42 CDT

This beautiful flower hasn't grown in a field or a greenhouse, but has instead grown out of a solution of barium chloride and sodium metasilicate. Joanna Aizenberg's lab at Harvard University in the U.S. has been working to create microstructured and nanostructured surfaces to imbue materials with specific properties, for example making them non-stick.

The reasoning for hurricane names and their history

20 May 2013 13:21:42 CDT

With the approach of the June 1-Nov. 30 hurricane season, don't waste time emailing the National Hurricane Center pleading for your favorite person's name to be added to this year's list of storm names. The system of officially naming Atlantic Basin storms began in 1950 using names from the joint British-U.S. World War II spelling alphabet ― Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog, Easy and so on.

Who writes the messages in fortune cookies?

20 May 2013 13:21:42 CDT

People often take fortune cookie messages to heart. They crack open the yellow crescent moon cookies that conclude their Chinese restaurant meal, and eagerly hunt for predictions, revelations, and deeper meaning. Many save their favorites, carrying them around in a wallet.

Photographer captures incredible moment lightning strikes the Grand Canyon

20 May 2013 13:21:42 CDT

This is the incredible moment a fierce lightning bolt crashed against the Grand Canyon. Shrouded in darkness, the breathtaking landscape was shocked into life as Mother Nature fired the bolt illuminating the canyon walls. As it cracked against the rocks the bright blue bolt lit up the south rim of the canyon, considered one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. With just the Desert View Watchtower in the foreground, the lightning was perfectly framed by Arizona's most famous landmark.

New forensic technique for estimating time of death by checking internal clock of the human brain

20 May 2013 13:21:42 CDT

People with severe depression have a disrupted "biological clock" that makes it seem as if they are living in a different time zone to the rest of the healthy population living alongside them, a study has found.

Cells as living calculators

20 May 2013 13:21:42 CDT

MIT engineers have transformed bacterial cells into living calculators that can compute logarithms, divide, and take square roots, using three or fewer genetic parts. Inspired by how analog electronic circuits function, the researchers created synthetic computation circuits by combining existing genetic "parts," or engineered genes, in novel ways.

Human stem cells created by cloning

20 May 2013 13:21:42 CDT

It was hailed some 15 years ago as the great hope for a biomedical revolution: the use of cloning techniques to create perfectly matched tissues that would someday cure ailments ranging from diabetes to Parkinson's disease. Since then, the approach has been enveloped in ethical debate, tainted by fraud and, in recent years, overshadowed by a competing technology.

Bach to the blues, our emotions match music to colors

20 May 2013 13:21:42 CDT

Whether we're listening to Bach or the blues, our brains are wired to make music-color connections depending on how the melodies make us feel, according to new research from the University of California, Berkeley. For instance, Mozart's jaunty Flute Concerto No. 1 in G major is most often associated with bright yellow and orange, whereas his dour Requiem in D minor is more likely to be linked to dark, bluish gray.

3-D print your own invisibility cloak at home

20 May 2013 13:21:42 CDT

Invisibility cloaks made of plastic can now be created at home using 3-D printers, researchers show. The first clues that cloaking devices might one day become more than science fiction, a la "Star Trek" began emerging seven or so years ago. Since then researchers have made such cloaks a reality by smoothly guiding rays of electromagnetic radiation such as microwave beams completely around objects so they proceed along their original trajectory as if nothing were there.