Awesome Video - Molecular Visualizations of DNA

As much of a word nerd as I am, some complex things are easier for me to understand with visual illustration. This explanation of DNA is especially cool. From the video's description:

Amazing CGI visualization of molecular biology's central dogma. It shows animations of DNA coiling, replication, transcription and translation. It was created by Drew Berry of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research.

The Pale Blue Dot

A little perspective from our friends at NASA.

Thanks to Voyager, now we know what we look like from 4 billion miles away. The photo at left is one of only two of Earth taken from deep space.

So where is Voyager now? Exploring the (theoretical) heliopause, where the boundary of our solar system ends and "the rest" begins, where solar winds meet stellar winds.

Yes, this is a nerd's way of conjuring up the vast and awe-inspiring, and saying Happy Thanksgiving. What, do you want a turkey? Okay, here.

Crush Me! CERN'S Large Hadron Collider Down Until 2009!

Dangit. I know I'm a big geek, but I was really, really pumped about the LHC breaking down reality and getting to the bottom of things. I was following the initial tests via Twitter, and having updates sent to my phone, for goodness' sake - my excitement even had the New York Times emailing me for a layman's nerds-eye view of this whole thing. Then, the Twitter updates stopped.

And now? According to this press release:

...a large helium leak into sector 3-4 of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) tunnel have indicated that the most likely cause of the incident was a faulty electrical connection between two of the accelerator’s magnets...“Coming immediately after the very successful start of LHC operation on 10 September, this is undoubtedly a psychological blow,” said CERN Director General Robert Aymar...The time necessary for the investigation and repairs precludes a restart before CERN’s obligatory winter maintenance period, bringing the date for restart of the accelerator complex to early spring 2009. LHC beams will then follow.

I haven't been this disappointed since Congress was debating yanking Voyager's funding and letting the little far-flung probe go totally silent.