Science Links for July 3, 2008

Science Etcetera, Jupiterday 20080703

July 3rd, 2008

100 AUs away in space lies the Heliopause, where the solar wind from our Sun hits the rest of the Galaxy, where our solar system officially ends, and the two Voyager probes are mapping it.

Hot ions in the heliosheath
Credit: University of California, Berkeley; L. Wang

Congress will (barely) continue funding Fermilab.

A new model that corrects for previous models’ bad math may mean we are underestimating extinction rates by a factor of 100.

Hey Kids! Wanna go explore a Massive Inflatable Colon? (The guy dressed up like an enema is totally awesome!!!)

Sweet animation of the vortex on Venus put together from the Venus Express observations (HT Oranchak).

Still from Venus Vortex Animation
Credit: European Space Agency

Men, to lower your chances of getting erectile dysfunction, have sex more often. Get a prescription and take it to the bar with you, might make a good pickup line.

Reptiles produce males or females based on temperatures, by 2085 the tuatara may go extinct from Global Warming preventing it from producing females.

The article refers to it as a flat atom, but its more of virtual atom that comes into existence when an electrical current is applied… still, it’s very cool and holds great promise for quantum computing.

Enchanting Rocketboom episodes like this are why I sit through all of the show’s artsy fartsy stuff: