Free Republic

Pope Francis has outlawed the sale of cigarettes at the Vatican in a bid to lead by example on healthy living. […] “The reason is very simple: the Holy See cannot contribute to an activity that clearly damages the health of people,” it said, adding that smoking claims more than seven million lives every year, according to the World Health Organization. […] Francis, who has only one lung, does not smoke. He has let the locals keep their other guilty pleasure: tax-free alcohol. The cigarettes and booze are sold in a luxury duty-free shop, opened in 2003 in what was...

Scientists have spotted swirling patterns in the radiation lingering from the big bang, the so-called cosmic microwave background (CMB). The observation itself isn't Earth-shaking, as researchers know that these particular swirls or "B-modes" originated in conventional astrophysics, but the result suggests that scientists are closing in on a much bigger prize: B-modes spawned by gravity waves that rippled through the infant universe. That observation would give them a direct peek into the cosmos' first fraction of a second and possibly shed light on how it all began."I see it as a big step forward," says Charles Bennett, a cosmologist...