|  Evolution of Milky Way Galaxy Revealed by Hubble Space Telescope  | Astronomers have pieced together a detailed picture of how our Milky Way galaxy came together, using Hubble Space Telescope photos of 400 similar galaxies at various stages of evolution. "For the first time we have direct images of what the Milky Way looked like in the past," study co-leader Pieter van Dokkum, of Yale University in New Haven, Conn., said in a statement.
| Read More » How to See Comet ISON: New App Points the Way  | The anticipation is building for Comet ISON's potentially dazzling night sky show this month and a new mobile app promises to help skywatchers spot the comet with telescopes, binoculars and their own eyes. Called Comet Watch, the free app is available for the iPhone or iPad. The comet is already visible to the naked eye and is on track for a planned close encounter with the sun on Thanksgiving (Nov. 28). In addition to identifying Comet ISON, Comet Watch also provides the details on how to identify the locations of constellations, individual stars, galaxies, nebulas and even SETI research targets are in relation to the comet, the app's makers say.
| Read More » What a Dinosaur Brain May Have Looked Like  | "No one has ever found a preserved dinosaur brain," said Erich Jarvis, a neurobiologist at Duke University in Durham, N.C., who presented the research with a colleague Tuesday (Nov. 12) here at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. Birds evolved from a group of predatory dinosaurs, overwhelming evidence suggests. Until recently, scientists thought bird brains lacked a true cortex, the outer layer found in mammalian brains where complex cognition takes place. Then, in 2004, a new view emerged of the bird brain — one containing a cortex, or pallium, with distinct subregions.
| Read More » Stephen Hawking Says Not Finding Higgs Boson Would Be 'More Interesting'  | The discovery of the once-elusive Higgs boson particle after a decades-long hunt is widely regarded as a major breakthrough, but legendary physicist Stephen Hawking thinks the field would actually be more "interesting" if the Higgs had remained a mystery. "Physics would be far more interesting if it had not been found," Hawking told an audience at the Science Museum in London this week, according to The Guardian. The Higgs boson is an elementary particle that is thought to explain why other fundamental particles have mass. Its discovery in July 2012, at the Large Hadron Collider housed at CERN's physics lab in Geneva, Switzerland, represented the final piece of the puzzle predicted by the Standard Model, the reigning theory of particle physics.
| Read More » Arizona sets precedent for solar systems with new monthly fee  | Arizona on Thursday dealt a blow to the state's largest utility by approving a monthly fee on customers with solar panels that Arizona Public Service said was not enough to offset the costs that those rooftop systems have heaped on its remaining ratepayers. The measure, approved by the Arizona Corporation Commission in a 3-2 vote, was intended to serve as a compromise between APS and the solar industry, which had fought to stop the utility's efforts to change a solar incentive that has buttressed the rapid growth of rooftop systems in one of the nation's sunniest states. The fee of 70 cents per kilowatt would equate to about $5 a month for the average solar customer in Arizona - an amount the solar companies at the hearing said they could live with.
| Read More » Two Comets Spotted by NASA Spacecraft Orbiting Mercury (Photo)  | A NASA probe in orbit around Mercury has spotted two incoming comets as they approach the sun this month. The space agency's Messenger spacecraft snapped photos of Comet ISON, which scientists once billed as a potential "comet of the century," and another icy wanderer —Comet Encke — over the course of a few days this month. The Messenger team observed Comet Encke from Nov. 6 to Nov. 8 and Comet ISON from Nov. 9 to Nov. 11. "We are thrilled to see that we've detected ISON," Ron Vervack, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, leader of the ISON observation campaign with Messenger, said in a statement.
| Read More » Internet of Things Has Big Startup Potential Information-technology (IT) research and advisory firm Gartner found that the intersection of personal worlds and the Internet of Things is creating new markets and a new economy. Gartner predicted that by 2020, 30 billion mobile phones, tablets, computers, wearable technology devices and other types of connected devices will be in use. "The traditional IT market is not going to grow at a faster rate anytime soon, if ever — increased growth will come from the nontraditional IT market," said Peter Sondergaard, senior vice president at Gartner and global head of research. This growth opens up new business opportunities, as half will be attributed to new startups and 80 percent will be in services, not products, Sondergaard said. Read More » The 'W' Word Bosses Rarely Say "When managers aren't transparent in their actions — and that includes accepting responsibility for errors, being truthful with their employees and acknowledging hard work — that tends to breed mistrust among employees," said Andrew Graham, CEO of Forum Corp. "The lack of employee engagement is a huge issue among U.S. workers, and our research found that employees who register low levels of trust at work are also the most likely group to report low engagement." While trust in the workplace has suffered in recent years, there are certain actions that both employers and employees agree can bolster trust. Read More » See the Leonid Meteor Shower Peak Tonight in NASA Webcast  | The annual Leonid meteor shower will be at its best tonight, but don't fret if cloudy skies ruin your view: NASA will webcast the celestial fireworks show live online. Astronomers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center will provide a live views of the night sky over Huntsville, Ala., beginning at nightfall. You can watch the Leonid meteor shower webcast here, courtesy of NASA MSFC. "Unfortunately the full moon in the sky will likely wash out all but the very brightest Leonids," NASA officials explained in a skywatching guide.
| Read More » Incredible Tech: How to Display a 2-Ton Dinosaur  | A century ago, a paleontologist preparing a fossil for study and display had only teeny chisels and brushes for help. and a whole lot of patience," said David Temple, associate curator of paleontology at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The first paste ever used, Temple told LiveScience, was basically oatmeal. But some of the biggest changes have come with increasingly precise pneumatic tools that can chip rock away from fossils with great delicacy.
| Read More » Deformed, Pointy Skull from Dark Ages Unearthed in France  | The skeleton of an ancient aristocratic woman whose head was warped into a deformed, pointy shape has been unearthed in a necropolis in France. The necropolis, found in the Alsace region of France, contains 38 tombs that span more than 4,000 years, from the Stone Age to the Dark Ages. The Obernai region where the remains were found contains a river and rich, fertile soil, which has attracted people for thousands of years, Philippe Lefranc, an archaeologist who excavated the Stone Age burials, wrote in an email.
| Read More » 'Dueling Dinosaurs' Await Auction Fate  | NEW YORK — Seven years ago, two amazingly complete dinosaurs were discovered in a shared grave in Montana. One, a clunky Triceratops-like creature, was partially draped over the other, a scrappy tyrannosaurid with its skull crushed in and many of its teeth broken off.
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