Submarine eruptions, hybrids, and quarks

The first three links are to my latest column on Intute, which is now online:

  • Scrubbing up knowledge of submarine volcanoes – Consider the simple pumice stone next time you're having a bathtime scrub…
  • Metallic liquid crystals – A new class of materials formed by combining liquid crystals and metal clusters glow intensely red and in the infra-red region of the electromagnetic spectrum when irradiated over a broad range of wavelengths
  • Quark, strangeness, and charm – US researchers have calculated, with a tiny margin of error, the mass of the three lightest and, therefore, most elusive quarks
  • Neanderthal genome sequenced – Did your great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, grand-dad get it on with a Neanderthal? New evidence of interbreeding between humans and Neanderthals 50-100,000 years ago
  • Andrew Wakefield research fraud exposed: the MMR investigation – For any vaxophobes who still think that the MMR vaccine has anything to do with autism check out this tale.
  • Cleaning-chemicals industry takes on the final frontier… – Eradicating invisible stains…surely if they're invisible they're not stains, and who knows what invisible residues are left behind by cleaning fluids, anyway?
  • Cosmic comic book – Hiliarious rhyming comic book takes us on an explosive tour of the origins of the universe

I have a free high-resolution copy of the Cosmic comic book (PDF) to give away, just retweet this post or leave a comment and I’ll send you a link!