S is for Science, and that's good enough for me

Sesame Street has announced that this year's new season of programs with be focusing more on STEM instruction (that's Science Technology Engineering and Math for those of you not in the education world).  So if you still tune in to watch that childhood favorite you can help Cookie Monster do an experiment on density, or watch Super Grover "unleash the power of Obser-vation... vation.... vation......"  This is all being done in an effort to help America's kids improve their STEM skills, which I think is great.

Speeding past the speed of light?

Researchers at the CERN particle collider near Geneva announced that they measured neutrinos traveling FASTER than the speed of light.  That was previously though impossible, according to Einstein's theory of relativity.

These are just initial findings, there's no scholarly paper out yet, but it looks like this could be the physics discovery of a lifetime.

Video games can be useful!

Scientists created a game called Foldit where players can try different ways of folding proteins into three-dimensional shapes in hopes of actually finding the real shapes of molecules.  Scientists have been trying to figure out the shape of a protein that causes AIDS in rhesus monkeys for 15 years, and using foldit some game players found it in ten days!

Here's the story and the journal article announcing the discovery.

Here's a link to Foldit - you can play it yourself!