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A sleek, subterranean X-ray laser set to be unveiled in Germany today, the most powerful in the world yet, has scientists in a dozen fields jostling to train its mighty beam on their projects. European XFEL will reveal - and capture in images - secrets at the sub-atomic level, promising breakthroughs in medicine, biology, energy, information technology and chemistry. It will map the molecular architecture of viruses and cells, render three-dimensional nano-scale snapshots and film chemical reactions as they unfold. Earth scientists should be able to duplicate and study processes occurring deep inside planets, including our own. "The laser is...

King Tut was buried with a dagger made of an iron that literally came from space, says a new study into the composition of the iron blade from the sarcophagus of the boy king. Using non-invasive, portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, a team of Italian and Egyptian researchers confirmed that the iron of the dagger placed on the right thigh of King Tut's mummified body a has meteoric origin. ...

If you had told 12-year-old me that one day I would be able to listen to pretty much any song I wanted to on demand and also pull up the lyrics as fast as I could type the artist’s name and part of the title into a text box, I would have a) really hoped you weren’t kidding and b) would have wanted to grow up even faster than I already did. The availability of music today, especially in any place with first world Internet access is really kind of astounding. While the technology to make this possible has come...

An upstate New York man accused of trying to assemble a mobile X-ray device meant to kill people at a mosque and an Islamic center is on trial in federal court. Glendon Scott Crawford of Galway has pleaded not guilty to three charges, including conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction. The trial began Monday in Albany. His attorney says Crawford was targeted in an elaborate FBI plot, that no crime otherwise existed and the device was harmless. …

Explanation: A new star, likely the brightest supernova in recorded human history, lit up planet Earth's sky in the year 1006 AD. The expanding debris cloud from the stellar explosion, found in the southerly constellation of Lupus, still puts on a cosmic light show across the electromagnetic spectrum. In fact, this composite view includes X-ray data in blue from the Chandra Observatory, optical data in yellowish hues, and radio image data in red. Now known as the SN 1006 supernova remnant, the debris cloud appears to be about 60 light-years across and is understood to represent the remains of a...

NASA's Chandra X-ray observatory has found a mysterious X-ray signal that astronomers are speculating could signal the presence of dark matter some 240 million light years away from Earth. A leading theory, NASA reports, is that the X-rays are a result of decaying "sterile neutrinos," which are particles that could potentially produce dark matter. Astronomers believe dark matter accounts for 85 percent of all matter in the universe, but dark matter does not emit or absorb light as does the "normal" matter in planets, stars, and galaxies, so its detection is much more difficult. NASA notes that normal matter may...

Security researchers have discovered a potentially dangerous flaw in airport x-ray machines that would allow hackers to pass deadly weapons through security. Billy Rios and Terry McCorkle of security firm Qualys discovered that a training function called Threat Image Projection, which superimposes fake images of contraband on the screen to train security personnel, could be manipulated to work in reverse, and project images of weapon-free luggage over top of the real thing. The training software is present in all TSA scanners, and also on machines deployed in government buildings, embassies, courthouses, ports and border crossings. …

Using a compact but powerful laser, a research team at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has developed a new way to generate synchrotron X-rays. Although the high quality of synchrotron X-rays make them ideal for research ranging from the structure of matter to advanced medical images, access to the technology has been limited until now. Most traditional synchrotron X-ray devices are gigantic and costly, available only at a few sites around the world. As reported in this week's issue of the top-ranked optics journal Nature Photonics, researchers at UNL's Extreme Light Laboratory developed a novel method to generate research-quality X-rays using...

A New York man who allegedly wanted to kill President Obama and apparently blamed him for the recent Boston bombings has been arrested for trying to build and detonate a weapon of mass destruction. Glendon Scott Crawford, 49, of Galway, N.Y., spent months designing and constructing an X-ray system that would emit deadly amounts of radiation and could be detonated remotely, according to the FBI. Crawford recruited Eric J. Feight, 54, of Hudson, N.Y, to join in the plot, and both were arrested Tuesday, the FBI said. Crawford and Feight allegedly planned to hide their weapon in a truck and...

Scanner-GateMajor Airports to Remove Invasive X-ray, Body Scanners (before election day....)Report: TSA wasting money on screening machinesTSA cancer danger coverup?How Safe Are TSA's Porno Scanners? .... Still no Rigorous Hard Data for the Safety of X-Ray Airport Passenger ScannersTSA 'ignored warnings' on cancer clusterTSA 'ignored warnings' on cancer clusterNapolitano's email- lies about safety of full body scanners2008 Document obtained by EPIC shows that a growing number of TSA workers diagnosed with cancers are voicing concern that the full body scanners and x-ray machines are indeed to blame for their illnesses.John Hopkins study - radiation zones around (airport) body scanners could...

Women with certain gene mutations are more likely to develop breast cancer if they were exposed to radiation from chest X-rays or mammograms before age 30, compared with those who have the gene mutations and weren't exposed to radiation, new research suggests. The study included nearly 2,000 women, 18 and older, in the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom. All of the women had a mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes, which have long been linked to raised risks for breast and ovarian cancer. Forty-eight percent of the women reported ever having an X-ray and 33 percent had undergone...

Behold, an X-ray of Hitler’s head You're looking at one of five known X-rays of Hitler's head. The radiograph is just one of 17-million rare, intriguing, and often-bizarre items housed in the the U.S. National Library of Medicine, the largest medical library on Earth. We've got a gallery. This particular image is part of a larger medical dossier on Hitler that was assembled by U.S. military intelligence following World War II, and one of the 450 images featured in Hidden Treasure — a book published yesterday in observance of the National Library of Medicine's 175th anniversary. Hitler as Seen by...

The head of the Transportation Security Administration has backed off a public commitment to conduct a new independent study of X-ray body scanners used at airport security lanes around the country. Earlier this month, a ProPublica/PBS NewsHour investigation found that the TSA had glossed over research that the X-ray scanners could lead to a small number of cancer cases. The scanners emit low levels of ionizing radiation, which has been shown to damage DNA. In addition, several safety reviewers who initially advised the government on the scanners said they had concerns about the machines being used, as they are today,...

The European Union on Monday prohibited the use of X-ray body scanners in European airports, parting ways with the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, which has deployed hundreds of the scanners as a way to screen millions of airline passengers for explosives hidden under clothing. --> The European Commission, which enforces common policies of the EU's 27 member countries, adopted the rule “in order not to risk jeopardizing citizens’ health and safety.” As a ProPublica/PBS NewsHour investigation detailed earlier this month, X-ray body scanners use ionizing radiation, a form of energy that has been shown to damage DNA and cause cancer....

Zzzzaapp! Some angry photons have just been blasted off toward your body, scouting for “contraband.” In the process of the search, these energetic massless particles will kick the crap out of some of your body’s cells, disrupting them in their duties. Some of these cells will be so desolated by the experience that they will lose their lust for life and will die. Others might be so incensed that they will turn rogue (i.e. cancerous). But it’s OK, because Janet “I’m Not A Scientist” Napolitano has said it’s OK. Your submitting yourself to an invasive X-ray probe is a matter...

Very unpleasant experience today with TSA employees on a mission from God to conduct full body pat-downs whenever they could. You’ve heard about it. You’ve seen it on television. Well, it actually happened to me this morning and I almost went to jail over it. I was attempting to fly out of Sarasota, Florida to Atlanta, Georgia today. I cleared security and got out to my gate only to discover the flight was delayed for another hour and a half. So I exited the boarding area and went to one of the restaurants in the main terminal. When I attempted...

This is total insanity. I've had breast cancer, there is no way I'm going through one of those machines. I've been molested as a child. There is no way I'm going to allow someone to molest me again, include a government agency. Do they have any idea of the physiological implications of what they are doing? My hubby says, well then don't fly. He has a point. I'd hate to do this to my elderly mother, God forbid she get sick and want me home quickly, it takes 21 hours to drive home. But, I can not bring myself to...

While North America's airports groan under the weight of another sea-change in security protocols, one word keeps popping out of the mouths of experts: Israelification. That is, how can we make our airports more like Israel's, which deal with far greater terror threat with far less inconvenience. "It is mindboggling for us Israelis to look at what happens in North America, because we went through this 50 years ago," said Rafi Sela, the president of AR Challenges, a global transportation security consultancy. He's worked with the RCMP, the U.S. Navy Seals and airports around the world. "Israelis, unlike Canadians and...

MEDIA ADVISORY : M10-157 NASA Announces Televised Chandra News Conference WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a news conference at 12:30 p.m. EST on Monday, Nov. 15, to discuss the Chandra X-ray Observatory's discovery of an exceptional object in our cosmic neighborhood. The news conference will originate from NASA Headquarters' television studio, 300 E St. SW in Washington and carried live on NASA TV. Media representatives may attend the conference, join by phone or ask questions from participating NASA locations. To RSVP or obtain dial-in information, journalists must send their name, affiliation and telephone number to Trent Perrotto at: trent.j.perrotto@nasa.gov by...

The more I think about this, the madder I am. Where is the media on this? Where are the anti-nuke people from NPR who want to make this a nuke-free world? Where are the ethics people of medicine? Where are the Holocost people who despise Nazi experiments? Where are the dental assistants who hide behind the wall when zapping your head as you sit frozen with a lead blanket over your chest and a chunk of film between your teeth? This is new technology that is being perpetrated upon the American people, no different than Nazi Mengele who destroyed children...