Abandoned Planet

Imagine being young, and abandoned by your parent. Drifting through millions and millions of miles of space, all alone. This is exactly what has happened to CFBDSIR J214947.2-040308.9 (Very creative name). This young planet was cast away by it's parent star, and was left to fend for itself and drift aimlessly through the cosmos.

Since it is not near any star, it has allowed scientists to study its mass, atmosphere and temperature in great detail. This discovery will help astronomers now, because it will allow us to extrapolate data on other planets that are in the same conditions as this, but close to their host star. Most of the drive for this however is just curiosity. Discovering the randomness and strangeness of the universe is the real reason for astronomers' existence, and it is curiosity that is our greatest reason to live!

UPDATE: Invisibility

Last week, I had discused the possibility of invisiblity for us humans, and just yesterday, we have come closer to that goal! Researchers have created a diamond-shaped cloaking device, which splits light into 2 waves around it, and forces them back together as one on the other side, making it seem like the light passed through a void space, rendering it invisible.

However, with all these cloaking devices, there is a catch. Currently, only microwaves are able to be bent around the material, while still making it visible to the human eye. They are working on modifying the material to bend the frequency of light that we are able to see, and once they perfect that, we can each fullfil our desires to be like Harry Potter!

Language of Scent

Many of us would assume that humans could only communicate with either verbal cues, or visual ones. Anything else such as touch or thought would deem us supernatural... Well to those searching to become supernatural, look no more! Netherlands researchers have discovered that our emotions are also conveyed through scent. For example, a man who sweats out of fear will make other humans subconsciously react to things in a fearful manner, and the same goes for disgust, and other emotions.

The implications of this discovery are rather large. This means that there are chemicals in our bodily fluids, or that we emit, that can alter someones mood, or make them feel induced emotions. If people could harness that chemical, we could essentially make "fear gas" or other things we only see in those James Bond movies!

Broken Laws and Invisibility!

One of the major sci-fi dreams of science is to be able to shield things from view, or make things invisible. just recently, scientists have made this feat possible, by creating a "meta-material" which bends light around the material; showing only what is behind it (invisibility). However, these materials only worked on very small objects.

Stanford researchers, however, have discovered a way to make magnetic fields manipulate light. Previously, light was not affected by those fields, but by forcing them to bend and reverse, we are breaking a key law of physics: the Time-Reversal Symmetry of Light. By sending photons backwards, their properties could change, and we would essentially be sending them backwards in time. Breaking such a "set-in-stone" law also goes to show that others can be broken, which theoretically would allow us to do all the fun things which were deemed impossible. Things like time travel, FTL (faster than light) travel, teleportation, infinite power generators, and much more. The very definition of a nerd-gasm.