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Earlier this year on March 9, 2010 it snowed in the Southern Russian region of Stavropol. Normally I would not write an article about snow in Russia, but the snow that fell on that day, was not the kind of snow one envisions when dreaming of a white Christmas.  No, the snow that fell to the ground that morning was actually purple instead of white.  That's right purple snow. Now I am pretty sure most of you have heard of the song "Purple Rain" by the artist formerly known as Prince, but have any of you ever seen purple colored...

PARIS (AFP) - An international team of astronomers peering into the deep Universe said on Thursday they had mapped the biggest-ever structure of the enigmatic substance known as dark matter. They detected a web of matter spanning 270 million light years, or more than 2,000 times the size of our own galaxy, the Milky Way, they said. Around a fifth of the Universe is believed to consist of dark matter, spreading out in mysterious filaments, sheets and clusters. But, with present technology, it cannot be seen directly. Its existence is perceived indirectly, through the gravitational pull it exerts on light....

CLEVELAND — Cosmology used to be a heartless science, all about dark matter lost in mind-bending abysses and exploding stars. But whenever physicists and astronomers gather, the subject that roils lunch, coffee breaks or renegade cigarette breaks tends to be not dark matter or the fate of the universe. Rather it is about the role and meaning of life in the cosmos. Cosmologists held an unusual debate on the question during a recent conference, "The Future of Cosmology," at Case Western Reserve University here. According to a controversial notion known as the anthropic principle, certain otherwise baffling features of the...