Free Republic

Space can surprise even those who spend their lives studying it. People often think of our solar system as just a few planets and a bunch of empty space. Yet new observations suggest we have been living inside a hot, less dense region, and that there may even be a strange cosmic channel connecting us to distant stars. After years of careful mapping, a new analysis reveals what appears to be a channel of hot, low-density plasma stretching out from our solar system toward distant constellations. Astronomers from the Max Planck Institute recently confirmed it using data from the eRosita...

The last time Jim Ryan ran for governor of Illinois, he offered voters a clear choice between a man who never took a dime in public life and Rod Blagojevich. And though many would like to forget it, they chose Blagojevich. "The infrastructure of the Illinois Republican Party has never really been for me," Ryan said over breakfast the other day as we talked about that 2002 campaign and his current run in the crowded GOP primary for governor. "I'm not a deal-maker. And senior Republicans knew my reputation. They knew I wouldn't be flexible." Seven years ago, Ryan, then...

One challenge facing researchers was learning how to control crystallization of the polymer. As similar shape-shifting materials are stretched or cooled, atomic strands of polymer molecules re-align, driving the object to stay in the "temporary" alignment. This process makes it more and more difficult to bring the object back to its "relaxed," original form. Individual "linkers" were used to connect the molecules, reducing the effects of crystallization in the new polymer. By carefully controlling the placement of the linking chains, researchers were able to precisely direct the turning point of the material. When the new polymer is removed from the...