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Scientists have made an unexpected discovery, it is a new form of carbon dioxide. When tremendous pressure was applied to carbon dioxide, to the surprise of all, it formed an ultra hard material. The material is so stiff, that it is compared to a diamond. So why are scientists so excited over this discovery? Is it because they found something new? Well that could be part of it, but the ones who are really excited are the astronomers. I know, you are wondering why in the world, a form of dry ice could excite them, aren't you? Sometimes you have to look at the big picture. Since astronomers are interested in stars, space, planets and such, you figured out that it must have something to do with that, didn't you? You are completely right, congratulations. The reason that they are so excited, is that many giant planets are loaded with carbon dioxide, and the closer this carbon dioxide is to the surface of the planet, the more pressure it is under because it has more atmosphere on top of it pushing down. At some point, all this pressure may be enough to form the same type of hard material that has been seen in the lab. It seems that scientists of all types were given a tiny glimpse of what to expect on some gassy planets. It just might behoove them to try putting some of the other types of gas, that are found on these planets, under the same amount of pressure to see what else might be formed. Meanwhile they have discovered a material that just might be useful in creating a super hard form of glass. The glass could be made by adding silica to the carbon dioxide and applying that pressure again and the good thing is, they think it will be stable at room temperature.

Growing old and losing your memory is not the whole story. Something else has been noticed by the scientific community. Older people are less angry and seem to be stimulated more than the rest of us by happiness in others. When we get older we slow down. It isn't just our bodies that are slowing down, it is also our brains. One of the first things that you begin to notice is that you can't do as many things simultaneously anymore. Hey I was never that good at that anyway. A recent study has show that older people process positive emotions better than the rest of us. This isn't true for all emotions, such as negative emotions, only positive ones. Brains, like bodies, need exercise. It has been shown that if a person does things to stimulate their brain, they can stave off or at least slow down the progress of such diseases as Alzheimer's. It has also been shown that older people have a better understanding of social problems and know better when to take action and when to leave things alone.

So why are their so many two headed creatures being born lately? Is it that we just have better communication now and the word of their birth gets around more? I would hope that this is the case, because if it is not, then there is something definitely wrong and nature is rebelling. Some of the reports, of this nature, can not be verified, but some can. A two headed girl was born in Egypt, The second head was on top of the first and could smile and blink, but was not connected to any internal organs. When the second head was removed last year, the poor child died from a brain infection. I left the photo of the unfortunate child off, because I didn't feel it was suitable for all readers. While reports of two headed humans are quite rare, reports of two headed cats are considerably more common. The condition of having more than one head is called Polycephaly. This term also includes bicephaly and dicephaly which refer to two headedness. If we were to look for the most common of two headed animals, we would find they are snakes and tortoises. Lately, there have been occurrences of two headedness appearing in cats, dogs, cattle, sheep, fish and pigs. Even birds have been born with two heads. Believe me when I tell you that two heads are NOT better than one.

Mysterious worms have appeared in Sokoto State in Nigeria. The residents of that area are terrified. They have named the worms BA SUSA, which means no scratching. It seems that the worms like to come out in the rainy season. The worms live in bushes and when they come into contact with human skin they cause uncontrollable itching and irritation. If they get near the eyes, the problem can even be more severe. The people in the area, where the worms are residing, are complaining that as soon as they scratch, the area that they are scratching becomes swollen. Health authorities there are asking people to come to the clinics immediately, if they come in contact with these creatures.

When people hear the name Lockheed Martin, most of them think of an aerospace firm. By that I mean a company that builds both airplanes and space vehicles. The thing is, the company is also a leader in AI or artificial intelligence. Space exploration and AI go hand in hand today. One of the things that they are developing is MaxiStar. This is a computerized maintenance program that operates using artificial intelligence. This seems to be one of the most perfect applications of AI, because machines are best suited to run and keep track of routine tasks. While performing maintenance on something like the space shuttle is hardly a task to take lightly, it is a tasks that could have conflicting jobs. For example, someone might be scheduled to perform a certain type of maintenance on the ship that would make it impossible to perform a different type at the same time. That is what MaxiStar is for. It uses its artificial intelligence to make sure that things like this don't happen. The company states that can save an organization ,that has a lot of valuable equipment, a lot of time and money.

Have you ever seen that scene in a scifi movie where someone is blown out into space and he or she isn't wearing a spacesuit? They sometimes explode and at other times seem to be gasping for breath for an inordinate long period of time. You might even seen them freeze instantly. Did you ever wonder what would really happen to a person that this happened to? I know that I have. Here is the answer from a NASA scientist. He states that if you DON'T hold your breath, you can stay exposed to space for about 30 seconds and still survive if brought back on board your ship. This NASA guy says that if you hold your breath, you probably will damage your lungs. He goes on to say that animal experiments (poor things) have shown that being exposed to the vacuum of space causes no immediate injury and guess what, you DON'T explode. Not only do you not explode, but there is no boiling of your blood. Since the body loses heat slowly, you will remain awake until you lose consciousness because your body has used up its oxygen supply, so you won't instantly freeze either. So much for the movies.

So much for science and technology today.