A group of students are carrying out an experiment in space to settle once and for all the validity of the long-held theory that sound cannot be heard in a vacuum.
The team from the Cambridge University Spaceflight (CUSF) society are launching a smartphone into orbit that will play videos of members of the public screaming in a variety of ways. As the videos are played, the team hope to find the answer to the question of whether or not anyone can hear you scream in space.
Edward Cunningham, one of the students involved with the experiment, explained the reasoning behind it.
"The whole justification behind this is that sound doesn't travel in a vacuum," he said. "And it is something we're told in school and you can actually test it in a lab.
"But we realised that no one has actually done an experiment in space before specifically to do this. And we thought it would be fun to try this out."
It has spent the best part of three millennia locked under a 20m block of ice and is six times saltier than sea.
And at 13°C below zero, Lake Vida in East Antarctica is one of the coldest aquatic environments on the planet.
Yet despite posing some of the most hostile conditions on Earth, the lake is teeming with life.
Scientists drilling into the lake have found abundant and diverse bacteria - potentially giving insight into how life might exist on other planets, the journal Nature reports.
NASA ImageLaboratory on another world: This schematic shows the range of instruments Curiosity uses on its mission
#Rover team make finding with instrument designed to identity signs of life
#'Earthshaking' discovery will be fully announced early next month
Nasa's Mars Curiosity rover has reportedly made a major discovery on the Red Planet - but scientists are keeping quiet about what it is.
The finding was made by the six-wheeled rover's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument in the Rocknest area of the Gale Crate, close to where the rover touched down. SAM is Curiosity's on-board chemistry lab and is able to take a sample of Martian rock, soil or air and find out what it is made of.
Except scientists are refusing to reveal its latest finding, merely saying that it is earthshaking. 'This data is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good,' said John Grotzinger, chief scientist in the Curiosity team, in an interview with NPR.
Mr Grotzinger would not be drawn on what the discovery actually was. He told NPR that his team won't be ready to talk about the discovery for several weeks. Most importantly, it is capable of identifying organic compounds - carbon containing substances that could indicate life.
Click source to read FULL report from Damien Gayle
The following article from the Daily Mail is of interest, in as much, a BBC "trustee" seems to have upset high ranking staff when wanting to find out if a "newly discovered planet" had any signals from Alien life forms. In case you have not come across information about the "Wow" signal before here is a YouTube that explains what was behind Brians idea.
A brief clip from our recent special "A Message From Space", celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). Was Stanley Kubrick scooped on "2001: A Space Odyssey"? For a moment there, he sure thought so.
It remains in the realm of science fiction for now but the discovery of a new planet just four light years away will reignite a race to find a twin of planet Earth that may host extraterrestrial life.
The step change comes as the most powerful telescopes ever built are about to enter into service and as ideas about where life could exist are being turned on their head. At the same time, scientific discussion about the possible existence of alien life is becoming more mainstream.
"I think scientists are very happy having a rational conversation about the likelihood of life out there," said Bob Nichol, an astronomer at Portsmouth University in Britain.
Nichol said this was partly driven by the discovery of new planets such as one identified this week in the Alpha Centauri star system, the closest yet outside our solar system.
Over 800 of these so-called exoplanets have been discovered since the early 1990s.
Australian politics in full flow...Julia Gillard (a keen supporter of AGW and carbon trading) attacks her Governments Opposition Leader, Tony Abbot...It's not what she said, It's what she didn't say!...Warning "Men" may find this YouTube offensive!
Julia Gillard has used a call by Tony Abbott for the Government to remove Peter Slipper as Speaker to attack the Opposition Leader for hypocrisy, labelling him a misogynist.
Temperature ranges: ESA spotted an anomolous cold region in the clouds of Venus, 140km above the surface
#Temperatures of -175C in high atmosphere suggests carbion dioxide 'snow' on Venus
#Follows recent discovery that Mars has flurries at the Northern Pole
#Planet has colder atmosphere than Earth - despite being closer to the sun
It may snow on Venus - although it will be snow composed of carbon dioxide, or 'dry ice'.
The European Space Agency's Venus Express satellite has spied a surprisingly cold region high in the planet’s atmosphere that may be frigid enough for carbon dioxide to freeze out as ice or snow.
The planet Venus is well known for its thick, carbon dioxide atmosphere and oven-hot surface, and as a result is often portrayed as Earth’s inhospitable evil twin.
George Hall captured a flash, likely an asteroid vaporizing in Jupiter's atmosphere, on September 10th, 2012. Scientists see the big planet as a cosmic vacuum cleaner. See Mr. Hall's astrophotography here: http://georgeastro.weebly.com/jupiter.html
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NASA ImageLaboratory on another world: This schematic shows the range of instruments Curiosity uses on its mission
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