And...

...just when we thought the periodic table might be full, four new elements have been added.

The four new elements complete the seventh row, were officially recognized in January, and have now been named Nihonium (after Japan), Moscovian (After Moscow), Tenessine (After Tennesse) and Oganesson. There's still one stage of review, but...we keep finding out more and more about the world, and that's always awesome.

Rocket Science

Space X plans on relaunching a rocket this fall. They plan on reusing the one which successfully landed on their drone ship on April 8.

If successful, this would be the first launch to orbit using a rocket flying for the second time. (The shuttle doesn't count - only the crew capsule was reusable and the actual rockets were disposable). They already have customers lined up willing to risk their payload for a chance to be part of history.

Reusable rockets would drop current payload to orbit costs by a factor of about 10.

Lisa Pathfinder a resounding success

The big thing in physics right now is gravity waves. Ripples in space-time. We've had some success detecting them - but as with so much in astronomy, we can get better detection if we launch our telescope into outer space.

Which is expensive, so ESA decided to do a test run first with a small satellite called Lisa Pathfinder, using test objects (with known mass).

The satellite is tracking the test objects 300 times better than the mission requirements. The current plan is to launch the actual telescope, which will consist of three satellites in linked orbit, in 2034 - but the success of this project might mean it's brought forward.

Let's hope so.

Spent...

...some very cool time at AwesomeCon DC hanging out with some wonderful people from the Goddard Spaceflight Center.

Thanks for reminding me how cool the moon is, amongst other things.

Oops

Didn't get a post out before leaving for Awesomecon DC.

Did get to spend some fun time hanging out with wonderful people from NASA - they're always so much fun when they come out of their labs to say hi ;).

Care about bees?

They've done more studies about what pollen domestic honeybees pick up - and yes, they forage in your back yard a lot.

The common wisdom says you should plant things bees like - but you should also be careful what insecticides you use, especially if you do have a "pollinator garden." You don't want to attract the ladies just to poison them, after all.

Don't use neonicotinoids and buy plants from nurseries that do not use neonicotinoids/neonics (which can stay IN the plant you bought - this also goes if you're buying milkweed for monarchs). This is a 2013 list of products that contain neonicotinoids - http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/files/pesticide_list_final_59620.pdf

(And that may not be comprehensive. It's probably better to avoid commercial insecticides altogether and go for traditional remedies such as soap or diatomaceous earth).

Early Writing

The Museum of London Archaeology has deciphered some tablets from AD 40-50 - the first decade of Roman rule.

One of them is a letter from one businessman suggesting another doesn't appear "too shabby" after all the money he's loaned.

The other is some kid's alphabet practice.

And from AD57 they found financial records that have the actual date on. They found a lot. London is basically one big ongoing dig.

(Sorry, had to let my archaeology geek out for once).