Scientific Minds Want To Know
After a
long solar minimum, the Sun is
no longer so quiet. On August 1, this
extreme ultraviolet snapshot of the Sun from the Solar Dynamics Observatory captured a
complex burst of activity playing across the Sun's northern hemisphere. The false-color image shows the hot
solar plasma at temperatures ranging from 1 to 2 million
kelvins. Along with the erupting filaments and prominences, a small(!) solar flare spawned in the active region at the left was accompanied by a coronal mass ejection, a billion-ton cloud of energetic particles headed for planet Earth.
The Mystery Of The Baigong Pipes
The Baigong Pipes are a series of pipe-like features found on and near Mount Baigong, southwest of the city of Delingha, in the Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. Their origin is disputed. Although they may be natural, the pipes are cited by various web sites as an example of an out-of-place artifact. The Baigong Pipes are reported to be associated with a pyramid about 160 to 200 feet high built on Mount Baigong.
The pipes were first discovered by a group of scientists from the United States who were seeking dinosaur fossils. They reported the
Baigong pipes to local authorities in Delingha. However, the pipes were ignored until 2002. The local government now promotes the pipe-like features as a tourist attraction, with road signs and tourist guides.
Mammal brains are like highly interconnected networks, rather than a chain of command, a study suggests.
