Winning Science August 10, 2014

For most of history scientists have been forced to experiment on animal brains if they wanted to test the way a brain works. Obviously it’s unethical to experiment on a living human, and a dead one doesn’t really give you quite the same insight. With the use of stem cells however, scientists have been able to start growing mini-brains in the lab that can model certain brain functions. While these mini-brains won’t ever become fully functional brains, they develop all the same kinds of tissue that the real thing has, which then allows scientists to study their functions better.

Maybe we could also make zombie treats out of them. Kind of like dog treats but… BRAAAAAIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNSSSSSSSS.

One of the biggest mysteries that continues to elude scientists is the nature of The Big Bang and what happened in the period just after it. One duo is working on a theory to explain how super-massive black holes ended up at the center of most galaxies. Trying to figure out how those black holes got so big is a head scratcher by itself, but younger ones have a much harder time growing, which is even more confusing. This theory is that the newly born universe had considerable amounts of cold, dense gas which could be drawn into the black hole without running into the same problems that happen when larger objects are sucked in. At the same time, the other objects in the universe were closer together and cause more erratic gravitational effects, preventing the formation of an accretion disc, which limits how much matter the black hole can pull in.

An artists rendition of a black hole.

Black holes at the center of the galaxy are way better than what Star Trek V puts there. Just sayin’.

There are wildfires in California. This should not really come as a surprise to anyone as it’s a somewhat frequent occurrence in that state. What is really cool about these fires are the images that were obtained of “fire clouds”. Formed in much the same way that normal clouds are formed, these clouds can stretch high into the sky, making for an impressive vista. The clouds can also be hazardous, transporting smoke and other pollutants from the site of the fire to other areas. On the flip side however, these clouds can become useful. If they change just a little bit they can cause thunderstorms, which bring much needed rains to help control the fires.

The official name for the clouds is pyrocumulus clouds.

Edit: Star Trek V took viewers to the center of the galaxy, not Star Trek IV.  Thanks to Brian for pointing that out on Facebook!