In an effort to “pay them back for their service”, astronauts Bob Crippen and Scott Carpenter recently visited a Florida island rescue sanctuary for chimpanzees.  While some of the chimps in the sanctuary were involved in the space program or are their descendants, many others have been involved in medical research.  Until this sanctuary was developed, many such research chimps have lived their lives out in cages after serving the purpose of researchers.  Before coming to the sanctuary, one chimp, Gromek, who had been used in blood studies, had been in his cage for over 40 years without ever leaving.

Other space chimps living at the compound include Gogi, Dana, and Lil’ Mini, daughter of the back up chimp, Mini.  The sanctuary allows the chimps to live in social groups of about twenty-five.  Because they cannot swim, water around the islands keeps them contained.  The so called “space chimps” were sent into space in the Mercury space program of 1950’s and 1960’s to see if sending men into space was safe.  At the time, there were fears that man could not outside of the earth’s atmosphere.  The work of the chimps allowed the space program to continue.  There are currently about 150 chimps at the compound and room for 300.

Edo Berger heard an alarm Thursday morning as a satellite sensed a ten second energy blast called a “gamma ray burst” originating from space. Once the alert was recorded, telescopes the world over pointed towards the blast and soon became aware of infrared radiation. Then Berger got ready to see the light which should have come next. It didn’t come.

Berger said, in a phone interview, “We were kind of blown away. We immediately knew what that meant,”

It means that he found the oldest thing that has been seen so far — a gigantic star blowing up thirteen billion years ago. He calculates that at the time the star exploded, the universe was a mere six hundred million years old.  He went on to explain that in simpler terms.  What he saw on that early morning was a glimpse of about ninety-five percent back into the beginning of all time as we know it.

Berger, who is an astronomy assistant professor at Harvard University, said the when the star, known now as GRB 090423, blew up it emitted a million times more energy than our sun will throughout it’s entire existence.  To the nearest approximation, the star was between thirty to one hundred times bigger than the sun at the time it exploded.

Its gamma radiation was sensed by the NASA satellite, Swift. Hawaii’s Gemini Observatory detected its infrared radiation.

For most of us a blackhole exists only in a Sci-fi flick.  In real life they cannot be seen, but astronomers see evidence of their existence.  In fact they actually see evidence of millions of them.  You could never actually enter a black hole and live, but scientist are using computers to simulate what would happen if you could.  You would feel waves of force pulling you in as you are stretched through spaghettification, a process that makes everythin stretched thin because the force of gravity on your feet is so much greater than your head.

Everything, even light is pulled toward the center of the black hole and nothing gets out.  The scientist say that it is like falling off a waterfall into space.  Everything inside the black hole is torn apart.  Fortunately we do not have to worry about ever falling into a black hole.  While the sun is only 8 light minutes away, the nearest black hole is 3,000 light years away.  That means that if you are traveling at the speed of light it would take you 3,000 years to get there.  Even our fastes rockets do not approach light speed.  We are at a very, very safe distance.

For generations, the Yupik Eskimos have endured the harsh winters of Alaska in the costal town of Newtok.  While one would think that after all the bitter cold, these people might enjoy, a bit of warmth, global warming is actually causing the entire town to move nine miles up the river. 

As global warming continues, the problems in this village have incresed.  Dependant upon ice shelves and the frozen subteranin soils to prevent flooding, the village has found that the warming of planet earth has melted their protection.

Recently the village of 340 voted to move the entire town upriver about nine miles because of the problems caused by golobal warming.  The village has experienced erosion and sinking due to flooding allowed by the melting.  Unfortunately, Newtok may not be the only village to have to move due to man’s empact on the palnet.  In immediate danger are 26 other villages in Alaska, with another 60 under threat during the next decade. 

According to the U.S. Army Corp of engineers the cost to move Newtok will be $130 million.  Global warming also affects other parts of the world as melting glaciers cause the shrinking of available croplands in island countires.  According the the United Nations, global warming will displace 150 million persons by mid-century.