Didn't want to clutter the forums (so, I'll just post a few article links here for your perusal), but found a number of interesting articles on stellar and cosmic phenomena and some interesting stuff even in our own terrestrial sphere, and with "new" physics info... Hope folks enjoy! Hopefully none of them have previously been posted... Even if so, they're pretty cool articles. =o]

Space:

(How many black holes are there in the Universe?)
http://www.whatsnextnetwork.com/technology/index.php/2006/09/07/p3363
"Astronomers using ESA's orbiting gamma-ray observatory, Integral, have taken an important step towards estimating how many black holes there are in the Universe.
An international team, lead by Eugene Churazov and Rashid Sunyaev, Space Research Institute, Moscow, and involving scientists from all groups of the Integral consortium used the Earth as a giant shield to watch the number of tell-tale gamma rays from the distant Universe dwindle to zero, as our planet blocked their view."

(NASA finds direct proof of dark matter.)
http://www.whatsnextnetwork.com/technology/index.php/2006/08/21/p3229
"Dark matter and normal matter have been wrenched apart by the tremendous collision of two large clusters of galaxies. The discovery, using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes, gives direct evidence for the existence of dark matter. 'This is the most energetic cosmic event, besides the Big Bang, which we know about,' said team member Maxim Markevitch of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass."

(No proof of dark matter?)
http://www.whatsnextnetwork.com/technology/index.php/2006/09/06/p3346
"When Douglas Clowe of the University of Arizona in Tucson announced on 21 August that his team had "direct proof of dark matter's existence", it seemed the issue had been settled. Now proponents of the so-called modified theories of gravity, who explain the motion of stars and galaxies without resorting to dark matter, have hit back and are suggesting that Clowe's team has jumped the gun."

(Ether replaces dark matter?)
http://www.whatsnextnetwork.com/technology/index.php/2006/08/23/p3256
"From his office window, Glenn Starkman can see the site where Albert Michelson and Edward Morley carried out their famous 1887 experiment that ruled out the presence of an all-pervading "aether" in space, setting the stage for Einstein's special theory of relativity. So it seems ironic that Starkman, who is at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, is now proposing a theory that would bring ether back into the reckoning. While this would defy Einstein, Starkman's ether would do away with the need for dark matter."

Seems the last article leads to a New Scientist "Premium" article. Members only. But I foudn a transcript elsewhere: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-08/ns-ert082306.php Enjoy!

('Sentinels' to help scientists predict solar storms - Will protect astronauts on journey to Moon and Mars)
http://www.whatsnextnetwork.com/technology/index.php/2006/09/02/p3326
" 'We have one solar maximum left to learn what we need to know before we send humans back to the Moon.' –-Prof. Robert Lin, Chairman of the Solar Sentinels Working Group, SPD, June 2006
Sept. 1 , 2006: In his 1970s book, Space, James Michener depicted a fictional Apollo mission that lost its crew to radiation from a massive solar flare. He based his tale on what easily might have been but for lucky timing: a massive flare on Aug. 7, 1972 occurred between Apollo 16 (April) and Apollo 17 (December), mankind's last journeys to the Moon."

(Hubble finds starbirth in galactic dust in gas)
http://www.whatsnextnetwork.com/technology/index.php/2006/08/23/p3261
"This active region of star formation in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), as photographed by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, unveils wispy clouds of hydrogen and oxygen that swirl and mix with dust on a canvas of astronomical size. The LMC is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way."

(Supermassive black holes shut down formation of new stars)
http://www.whatsnextnetwork.com/technology/index.php/2006/08/23/p3258
"Supermassive black holes in some giant galaxies create such a hostile environment, they shut down the formation of new stars, according to NASA Galaxy Evolution Explorer findings published in the August 24 issue of Nature.
The orbiting observatory surveyed more than 800 nearby elliptical galaxies of various sizes. An intriguing pattern emerged: the more massive, or bigger, the galaxy, the less likely it was to have young stars. Because bigger galaxies are known to have bigger black holes, astronomers believe the black holes are responsible for the lack of youthful stars."

(Mystery of quintuplet stars in Milky Way solved)
http://www.whatsnextnetwork.com/technology/index.php/2006/08/17/p3203
"For the first time, scientists have identified the cluster of Quintuplet stars in the Milky Way's galactic center, next to the super massive black hole, as massive binary stars nearing the end of their life cycle, solving a mystery that had dogged astronomers for more than 15 years."

(Why have space probes sped up and slowed down unexpectedly?)
http://www.whatsnextnetwork.com/technology/index.php/2006/08/17/p3196
"The mystery surrounding the Pioneer anomaly has deepened. The unexplained changes in acceleration seen in NASA's Pioneer 10 and 11 probes could be related to similarly odd shifts in the speed of other space probes, possibly pointing towards new physics."

Actually, I (like Electric Universe theorists) think they may have gotten this next one backwards. Methinks that it's the magnetic force, coupled with electricity that allows star-forming regions to do what they do, pulling matter into a collapse, to the point where gravity takes over. IE, standard model says gravity collapses matter, thus warping the magnetic field, whereas the EU model (the main tenet of which is simply that electricity and magnetism aren't given enough mindshare in relation to cosmic phenomena, and that they play a much larger role in the universe than is currently understood by the mainstream schools of thought, despite the scaleable effects of electricity and magnetism modeled in physics labs on Earth) says electricity and magnetism within the ambient plasma of the cosmos pulls matter into a self-constricting z-pinch configuration along stellar-scale Birkeland currents (See the "filamented hot gas" cosmos here for reference: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020820.html here http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap951108.html and here http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030126.html), then gravitation takes over once matter is sufficiently packed together. It's interesting that they're FINALLY discovering things that the EU theory has predicted for quite a while. But, the EU model is not widely known or accepted, and is NOT currently anywhere close to canonical, being generally referred to as pseudoscience or at best (most forgiving of foibles ;o] ) a proto-science, so just read the article below with the "standard explanation," and enjoy.

(Magnetic field's role in star formation)
http://www.whatsnextnetwork.com/technology/index.php/2006/08/12/p3158
"Long predicted by theory, the Smithsonian's Submillimeter Array has found the first conclusive evidence of an hourglass-shaped magnetic field in a star formation region. Measurements indicate that material in the interstellar cloud is dense enough to allow it to gravitationally collapse, warping the magnetic field in the process."

(1000th sungrazing comet discovered)
http://www.whatsnextnetwork.com/technology/index.php/2006/08/10/p3137
"Polish amateur comet hunter Arkadiusz Kubczak recently discovered his third comet in SOHO LASCO coronagraph images, but this one was special: the 1000th SOHO comet discovery in the Kreutz group of sungrazing comets."

(How fast is the Universe expanding? - Hubble constant verified)
http://www.whatsnextnetwork.com/technology/index.php/2006/08/08/p3121
"A critically important number that specifies the expansion rate of the Universe, the so-called Hubble constant, has been independently determined using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. This new value matches recent measurements using other methods and extends their validity to greater distances, thus allowing astronomers to probe earlier epochs in the evolution of the Universe."

(Galaxies more common in direction of gamma-ray bursts than in direction of quasars)
http://www.whatsnextnetwork.com/technology/index.php/2006/07/31/p3031
"A survey of galaxies observed along the sightlines to quasars and gamma-ray bursts--both extremely luminous, distant objects--has revealed a puzzling inconsistency. Galaxies appear to be four times more common in the direction of gamma-ray bursts than in the direction of quasars.
Quasars are thought to be powered by accretion of material onto supermassive black holes in the centers of distant galaxies. Gamma-ray bursts, the death throes of massive stars, are the most energetic explosions in the universe. But there is no reason to expect galaxies in the foreground to have any association with these background light sources."

(Where are the supermassive black holes hiding?)
http://www.whatsnextnetwork.com/technology/index.php/2006/07/26/p3000
"European and American scientists, on a quest to find super-massive black holes hiding in nearby galaxies, have found surprisingly few. Either the black holes are better hidden than scientists realised or they are lurking only in the more distant universe.
Scientists are convinced that some super-massive black holes must be hiding behind thick clouds of dust. These dusty shrouds allow only the highest energy X-rays to shine through. Once in space, the X-rays combine into a cosmic background of X-rays that permeates the whole of space."

(As planets form, they slow down their young sun)
http://www.whatsnextnetwork.com/technology/index.php/2006/07/25/p2997
"Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have found evidence that dusty disks of planet-forming material tug on and slow down the young, whirling stars they surround.
Young stars are full of energy, spinning around like tops in half a day or less. They would spin even faster, but something puts on the brakes. While scientists had theorized that planet-forming disks might be at least part of the answer, demonstrating this had been hard to do until now.
'We knew that something must be keeping the stars' speed in check,' said Dr. Luisa Rebull of NASA's Spitzer Science Center, Pasadena, Calif. 'Disks were the most logical answer, but we had to wait for Spitzer to see the disks.' "

Earth:

(Magma's ability to 'self-heat' may provide key trigger for eruptions)
http://www.whatsnextnetwork.com/technology/index.php/2006/09/06/p3356
"New insights into what might trigger the eruption of Mount St Helens and other potentially explosive volcanoes are reported today in Nature by scientists working at the University of Bristol, UK.
Professor Jon Blundy and colleagues show that as magmas crystallise they heat up rather than cool down, as previously thought. And the more a magma crystallises the hotter it gets – by up to 100 °C. This ability to self-heat may provide a trigger for eruptions."

(Study rules out ancient 'bursts' of methane from seafloor deposits)
http://www.whatsnextnetwork.com/technology/index.php/2006/08/24/p3271
"A dramatic increase about 12,000 years ago in levels of atmospheric methane, a potent greenhouse gas, was most likely caused by higher emissions from tropical wetlands or from plant production, rather than a release from seafloor methane deposits, a new study concludes.
This research, to be published in Science, contradicts some suggestions that the sudden release of massive amounts of methane frozen in seafloor deposits may have been responsible – or at least added to - some past periods of rapid global warming, including one at the end of the last ice age."

(Why Earth’s aurorae shine)
http://www.whatsnextnetwork.com/technology/index.php/2006/08/24/p3266
"ESA's Cluster mission has established that high-speed flows of electrified gas, known as bursty bulk flows, in the Earth's magnetic field are the carriers of decisive amounts of mass, energy and magnetic perturbation towards the Earth during magnetic substorms. When substorms occur, energetic particles strike our atmosphere, causing aurorae to shine.
Such colourful aurorae regularly light the higher latitudes in the northern and southern hemisphere. They are caused mostly by energetic electrons spiralling down the Earth's magnetic field lines and colliding with atmospheric atoms at about 100 kilometres altitude. These electrons come from the magnetotail, a region of space on the night-side of Earth where the Sun's wind of particles pushes the Earth’s magnetic field into a long tail."

This is troubling... What would cause such a hypoxia in the ocean?

(Wave of death off Oregon coast - 'Dead Zone')
http://www.whatsnextnetwork.com/technology/index.php/2006/08/10/p3139
"The most severe low-oxygen ocean conditions ever observed on the West Coast of the United States have turned parts of the seafloor off Oregon into a carpet of dead Dungeness crabs and rotting sea worms, a new survey shows. Virtually all of the fish appear to have fled the area.
Scientists, who this week had been looking for signs of the end of this "dead zone," have instead found even more extreme drops in oxygen along the seafloor. This is by far the worst such event since the phenomenon was first identified in 2002, according to researchers at Oregon State University. Levels of dissolved oxygen are approaching zero in some locations."

(Sumatra earthquake changed Earth's gravity)
http://www.whatsnextnetwork.com/technology/index.php/2006/08/03/p3084
"For the first time, scientists have been able to use satellite data to detect the changes in the earth's surface caused by a massive earthquake.
The discovery, reported in the latest issue of the journal Science, signifies a new use for the data from NASA's two GRACE satellites and offers a possible new approach to understanding how earthquakes work."

Other science:

Okay, this one's not from space, I realize, but is just creepy in its implications. Big Brother may eventually be able to mess with your mind/memories.

(Remember the memory erasing wand in 'Men In Black'? - Scientists can erase memory by inhibiting molecule in brain)
http://www.whatsnextnetwork.com/technology/index.php/2006/08/28/p3291
"In an article in Science magazine, SUNY Downstate researchers describe erasing memory from the brain by targeting a molecular mechanism that controls memory. Finding may be applied to chronic pain, memory loss, and other conditions.
Scientists at SUNY Downstate Medical Center have discovered a molecular mechanism that maintains memories in the brain. In an article in Science magazine, they demonstrate that by inhibiting the molecule they can erase long-term memories, much as you might erase a computer disc."

Exotic superconductivity? Cool!

(Strong magnetism changes intrinsic properties of electrons flowing through superconductors - An 'exotic' superconductivity)
http://www.whatsnextnetwork.com/technology/index.php/2006/08/17/p3198
"A University of Arizona physicist has discovered that powerful magnetic fields change the physical nature of superconductivity.
UA Associate Professor of Physics Andrei Lebed has discovered that strong magnetism changes the basic, intrinsic properties of electrons flowing through superconductors, establishing an "exotic" superconductivity."

Cell-sized Electromagnetic "tornadoes"? Also cool...

(Cell-sized 3-D structure could hold key for next-gen hard drives)
http://www.whatsnextnetwork.com/technology/index.php/2006/09/07/p3361
"In a research first that could lead to a new generation of hard drives capable of storing thousands of movies per square inch, physicists at Rice University have decoded the three-dimensional structure of a tornado-like magnetic vortex no larger than a red blood cell.
'Understanding the nuances and functions of magnetic vortices is likely going to be a key in creating next-generation magnetic storage devices,' said lead researcher Carl Rau, professor of physics and astronomy. 'It's widely believed this technology will support storage densities in the range of terabits per square inch, and our group is equally excited about the potential for magnetic processors and for high-speed magnetic RAM.' "

Huh? The electrowhatnow just got weaker? Interesting... If, unexpected...

(Strength of electromagnetic force lower than previously thought)
http://www.whatsnextnetwork.com/technology/index.php/2006/08/15/p3173
"All the atoms in the universe just got looser, at least in the eyes of humans. No, the laws of physics didn't change overnight, but our knowledge of how strong atoms are held together did have to be readjusted a bit in light of a new experiment conducted at Harvard University."

(Researchers solve mystery of attractive surfaces)
http://www.whatsnextnetwork.com/technology/index.php/2006/08/02/p3066
"When smooth surfaces that hate water approach each other underwater, scientists have observed that they snap into contact. This is apparently due to attractive forces that extend for tens to hundreds of nanometers.
But action over these distances -- though small to us -- are unexplainable by conventional theories, which find no standard force sufficiently long-ranged to accomplish this task."

(New technique renders nuclear waste harmless in tens of years, instead of thousands)
http://www.whatsnextnetwork.com/technology/index.php/2006/07/31/p3029
"As the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM) prepares to issue advice to government on nuclear waste, a group of physicists claims to have discovered a technique that could make nuclear waste much easier to deal with. The new technique, reported in the Physics World, would render nuclear waste harmless on timescales of just a few tens of years, instead of thousands."

(Quantum tunneling paradox solved)
http://www.whatsnextnetwork.com/technology/index.php/2006/07/26/p3012
"As if the concept of quantum tunneling—where atoms pass through barriers—isn't confusing enough, one of the vexing questions within that area of physics is why particles seem to travel faster than the speed of light when passing through a barrier, but not when they travel through empty space.
Also puzzling is why the time spent by the particle in the barrier does not seem to increase as the barrier is made longer and longer."