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Astronomers have spotted a star that is about to explode?a supernova. Could this ever happen to OUR sun?

In BBC News, Roland Pease reports that astronomers saw the star “RS Ophiuchi? flare up around 6 months ago, suddenly becoming a thousand times brighter than normal. This could mean that, somewhere in the universe, a world like ours is ending. Pease quotes Harvard scientist Jeno Sokoloski as saying, “The explosion is so energetic it actually lifts an envelope of material off the surface of the star and throws it off into space.”

Art credit: gimp-savvy.com
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This week we feature a rarity–an argument. It’s between Whitley Strieber and Daniel Pinchbeck about what the human future is likely to hold. It is the first time that an argument had broken out on Dreamland, but the suggestion that Whitley Strieber is in league with alien presences that don’t have the best interests of the human species at heart lit Mr. Strieber’s fuse, big time. For us, the result is an intense and revealing discussion as Pinchbeck accuses Strieber of encouraging disaster by having a ‘negative’ view of the future and Strieber accuses Pinchbeck of preferring a fantasy that seeks to ignore the laws of nature.

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For our subscribers, a welcome change of pace as Anne Strieber discusses the Burning Man festival with Daniel Pinchbeck. Pinchbeck has been attending Burning Man for years, and understands this remarkable and powerful cultural experience deeply. So, if you’ve ever wondered what Burning Man is and why it matters so much to so many, now’s your chance to find out. Peace reigns between host and guest in this lovely and fascinating interview. Plus, subscribers, you can go deeper–listen to Whitley Strieber’s FIRST interview with Daniel Pinchbeck about 2012 back in 2006.

NOTE: This show summary, previously published on our old site, may contain broken links.read more

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Microbes locked in Antarctic ice for as much as eight million years have been “resuscitated” in a laboratory. Now that the ice at both poles is melting, could this be dangerous?

Scientists melted down samples of ice from Antarctica glaciers, some of which are 8 million years old. The oldest living thing they discovered is a 600,000-year-old bacteria. Once the water was warmed up, the microbes became active again.

In LiveScience.com, Jeanna Bryner quotes researcher Thomas Gilbert as saying, “The colder you make the environment, the longer [DNA] survives. In places like Mars and [Jupiter’s moon] Europa, which are really, really cold, DNA may very well be surviving there for a hell of a long time.”
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