As I look at recent scientific events I have to note that there certainly are a lot of things happening. It is hard to say which announcement is the most important, because it depends on your point of view. If a cure for cancer came along would it be more important than solving the world's hunger problem? It you had cancer you would probably say yes, but if you were starving then that might change your opinion, so I have to say that a lot of recent events are important, but I won't try and classify them in terms of which are more important than others.

One thing that definitely caught my eye was a news item that stated that scientists had finally proven that Einstein's famous theory of e=mc2 was completely proven correct after 103 years of trying to do so. It had seemed to be correct until you got to the sub-atomic level, where there was lost mass that couldn't be accounted for until now. As most of us know, atoms can be smashed releasing even smaller particles. When gluons are measured their mass is 0 and when quarks are measured their mass is only 5% of that predicted by the formula. This has been giving physicists a headache for many years, because it indicated that there is 95% of the mass missing from these two particles that are created. The key here is that the formula not only refers to mass, but also energy and both can be interchangeable. In order to solve for the missing mass the scientists had to use computations as they said, "envisioning space and time as part of a four-dimensional crystal lattice, with discrete points spaced along columns and rows." When they did this, they found that the formula was correct. I could be wrong and if I am will any physicists out there please correct me, but I believe that the reason that the 95% of mass was missing was because it had been converted into energy, to put it simply. If you had 95% energy and 5% mass, since they are interchangeable, that equals 100%, which proves Einstein correct even at the sub-atomic level.

We have been hearing a lot lately about alternate energy. Scientists and engineers are talking about wind power, solar power, water power, fuel cells and all sorts of things that would replace our oil and coal burning plants and maybe even those dangerous nuclear ones. One thing that you don't hear much about is the attempt at creating a sun right here on earth that will be able to supply all our needs, but yes folks the attempt has been underway for some time and now some scientists are throwing everything they have at the problem. The sun is really a fusion reactor that scientists claim would be entirely safe and would use a hydrogen isotope that is found in abundance in our oceans. The way this works is that hydrogen atoms collide, this creates helium and releases energy, a lot of energy. The atoms have to be heated to hundreds of millions of degrees and this has been the problem. It requires more energy to go into this reactor than scientists have been able to get out of it. Scientists now think that they can overcome this, giving us limitless energy. This entire process creates a plasma that is so hot that no known material can contain it. Magnets are used to contain the plasma. To illustrate what has to be overcome, the best fusion reactor requires 10 watts of energy to give out 6.5 watts. The new machine is being built in France and a team of scientists from Europe, Japan, the United States, India, South Korea and Russia are working together to try and make this machine a reality.

Another type of power has been announced. It is nuclear power, but not what you are used to hearing about. This type is said to be very safe. A company in New Mexico is now producing miniature nuclear reactors. The fuel they use is known as low-enriched uranium and each device, which is only the size of a hot tub, will be able to power about 20,000 homes and be linked to more devices if necessary. The energy cost will be 10 cents per kilowatt hour. Some of you may be saying oh no, we shouldn't push nuclear energy again and usually this would be correct, except in this case there are several new features that make this nuclear generator more acceptable. The first one is that it is completely sealed and can be buried underground and guarded. It can't go into meltdown, because it contains NO moving parts. If it is opened, the fuel instantly cools. The waste it produces is only the size of a softball and this is after 5 years of use. Unfortunately there is still radioactive waste to get rid of, but it is nowhere as big a problem as current reactors.

There has been a big flap over the new large Hadron Collider (LHC) and some of the problems it is experiencing. When it was built it was and still is expected to revolutionize physics. Unfortunately it is down for some months for repairs. While the spotlight was on the huge machine, something happened at another older collider. The Tevatron particle accelerator at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois had grabbed the news. No one expected this older accelerator to come up with anything revolutionary, but it has. Scientists there have smashed some atoms together and came up with a particle that they have yet to explain. This has gotten them thinking that they may have discovered something that can change physics. When collisions take place they occur in a beam pipe, yet some particles seemed to have come from outside the pipe, surprising them. When the standard model of physics was considered it could not account for this.

Archaeologists are besides themselves. No they haven't found a new mummy, but what they have found is believed to be the tomb of Herod the Great. You may recall, he was king during the time of Christ. He was not a nice guy having murdered all male children under 2 years of age along with his wife and 3 of his sons. As evil as he was, he was just as great as a builder and what he built was considered the best. This included cities, fortresses and temples among other things. The tomb was not intact and it is believed that shortly after his death it was found and ransacked. The tomb was deduced to belong to Herod by the decoration on the remains of the sarcophagus.

Just when we thought that we knew almost everything about the sea and the creatures within, an announcement came out that stated that there was a lot of new things being discovered. One that really surprised me was the discovery of gigantic bacteria. Wow I wouldn't want to bump into one of these babies. Another thing that was discovered was the fact that a large portion of deep sea octopuses evolved from a creature that still exists in the Southern Ocean. A new feature of white shark behavior was discovered. The creatures, both male and female, repeatedly dive down about 300 yards when traveling long distances. It is not yet understood why they do this.

Scientists are trying a new tactic to help people lose weight. They are telling people to eat. Yes you heard me correctly. The idea is to eat foods that trick the body into feeling full. Foods are being developed at the Institute of Food Research in England that slow down the digestive system. This sends a signal to the brain that tells it that you are full. "That fools you into thinking you've eaten far too much when you really haven't," said one of the scientists. While scientists are working on these foods, they warn that this might be a very hard thing to do. Other scientists in England are trying a different technique. They are testing a seaweed extract named alginate. It is said to reduce fat absorption. Lookout world, in a few years we may all be slim.