On The Radar

The pick of the science news

Jupiter takes a hit

An observation by an amateur astronomer in Australia this week led Nasa scientists to investigate a dark spot that has appeared near Jupiter’s southern pole. Fifteen years after fragments of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet slammed into Jupiter, images taken this week (see below), using infrared telescope facilities, reveal a dark scar and warming of the upper atmosphere, indicating that our solar system’s largest planet has again been hit by something. “It could be the impact of a comet, but we don’t know for sure yet,” said scientist Glenn Orton on Monday. “It has been a whirlwind of a day.”

Irish inspiration

Charles Mollan's recent two-volume opus, profiling more than 100 deceased scientists with Irish connections who left their mark on history, is now available free in electronic form. To receive a soft copy of It's Part of What We Are: Some Irish Contributions to the Development of the Chemical and Physical Sciences, e-mail science@rds.ie with "Mollan book" in the subject line.

Quote of the week

“We now have the means to create global society. We are the first generation to be able to do this. We shouldn’t lose the chance

– British prime minister Gordon Brown, addressing the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford this week

By numbers

3.7 million

The number of procedures using animals for scientific experiments in 2008 across England, Wales and Scotland, according to British home office figures – up 14 per cent from 2007

2

The number of vacuum leaks in the Large Hadron Collider’s atom smasher, which means it won’t be ready for new particle beams until November, according to Wired.com

e-mail: 1000.claire@gmail.com