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Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist. He is best known for his theory of relativity and specifically mass–energy equivalence. Einstein received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect."

In 1999, Albert Einstein was named "Person of the Century" by Time magazine, a Gallup poll recorded him as the fourth most admired person of the 20th century and according to The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, Einstein is "the greatest scientist of the twentieth century and one of the supreme intellects of all time."

A partial list of his memorials:

    * The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics named 2005 the "World Year of Physics" in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the publication of the Annus Mirabilis Papers.

A week of Twitter mania culminated on Friday with actor Ashton Kutcher winning a popularity contest against cable news giant CNN on the Web platform and Oprah Winfrey sending her first "tweet."

Even though Twitter mystifies many people, its celebrity appeal has generated interest. This week, "What Happens in Vegas" star Kutcher added to the buzz by challenging CNN to be the first Twitter user with 1 million followers.

Kutcher crossed that mark on Friday, beating CNN's breaking news Twitter feed by a beak, as the cable channel attracted its millionth follower 30 minutes later.

On Friday, Twitterati everywhere held their breath as the influential Winfrey sent her first message using the system. "Feeling really 21st century," she wrote.

The Global warming which has resulted from the increase of hotbed gases concentration, will lead to humidity increase in atmosphere. To such conclusion have come scientists from University of the New Southern Wales and the Texas University (USA).

As water steams in itself are hotbed gases, this process will be interfaced to additional growth of temperature. The American experts mentioned, because of additional levels of humidity the climate on the planet within next century is capable to change considerably. Professor Andrew Dessler, one of the researchers, named this interrelation a vicious circle: the rise of temperature promotes humidity which in turn influences weather conditions.

According to assumptions of experts concerning climatic models on the planet the next hundred years, for this period there will be a considerable elaboration of water steams as response to global warming. By last estimations the temperature on the Earth will increase from 2 to 4 degrees — if such scenario becomes true, it can have catastrophic long-term consequences.

UK fetal neural stem cell specialist ReNeuron Group plc has signed a licence with BioFocus DPI, the drug discovery services division of Galapagos NV, under which ReNeuron will provide one of its neural stem cell lines derived from the striatum, the region of the brain most commonly affected by Huntington’s disease (HD). 

Researchers at BioFocus will use the cell line to validate HD drug targets they have discovered.  The research is being conducted by BioFocus on behalf of CHDI Foundation, Inc, a US-based charity working to develop drugs that delay or slow the progression of Huntington’s disease. 

ReNeuron will receive licence fees for supplying the cells. Michael Hunt, Chief Executive Officer of ReNeuron, said, “The cell line concerned has already shown its potential as a valid model of HD in the laboratory and is a further demonstration of the versatility of our range of stem cell lines for therapeutic and drug research applications.”

Planetary science made some leaps and bounds in 2008 that many people weren’t even aware of. Many of the findings were right in our own backyards, in Mercury and Mars, and others were way out in space beyond our solar system. Astronomers discovered at least 50 new planets, called "exoplanets," this year. "It’s been a very exciting year for exoplanet discoveries," said Michael Liu, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii. "The big picture is that a wide variety of new technologies, both instruments on existing telescopes and new dedicated telescopes, are really allowing astronomers to do much more sensitive measurements, and thus leading to a real bonanza of discoveries," Liu told SPACE.com.

So far there have been more than 300 exoplanets discovered. Many astronomers seem convinced that it’s only a matter of time before they spot another planet Earth. In November, two teams of astronomers reported that they had taken photographs of exoplanets. Geoffrey Marcy of the University of California, Berkeley, calls the images "the most spectacular thing in 2008." Speaking about the Hubble Space Telescope’s image of the planet called Fomalhaut b., Marcy added, "In my own professional opinion this is by far the most definitive picture of a planet ever taken."

One of my favorite magicians is Criss Angel http://www.crissangel.com/. His ability to draw the viewer into the most amazing illusions is seconded only by his peer, David Blaine http://www.davidblaine.com/.  The kind of "magic" they perform has earned Angel the title "the Mind Freak."

However, as I was reading the news from the scientific community this week, I was tempted to say that the most unbelievable mind freaks are not magicians at all, but people who have dedicated their lives to destroying the most vulnerable human beings while claiming that they only want to advance science. And if science can make it possible for only disease-free people to be born or for allegedly dying people to die earlier, why not?

The 8th annual Ottawa Linux Symposium (OLS) kicked off Wednesday in Ottawa, Canada at the Ottawa Congress Centre. Jonathan Corbet, co-founder of Linux Weekly News, opened the symposium with The Kernel Report, an update on the state of the kernel since last year.

Corbet started his talk with a brief recap of the Linux kernel development process. According to Corbet, Linux kernels are now on a two- to three-month release cycle. The current Linux kernel version is 2.6.17.6, with 2.6.17.7 expected shortly. All 2.6.x kernels are major releases, with 2.6.x.y kernels being bug-fix releases.

According NASA officials the next generation spacesuits are going to be developed by a company called Oceaneering International Inc. It is interesting to note that Oceaneering is famous for creating products for oil and gas industry and providing services for deep water operations.

NASA beat out Exploration Systems and Technology, which is a company owned by ILC and Hamilton Sundstrand. The later is a subsidiary of United Technologies and it has been the main contractor for creating spacesuits for Houston-based company since 1960s.

"Our team is excited about this tremendous opportunity to assist NASA in pushing the boundaries of space exploration. We have a world-class team of companies and individuals who are all committed to NASA and the Vision for Space Exploration. We have been working together with NASA for some time and are fully prepared to meet all of the requirements for the program," said Mark Gittleman, who holds the position of vice president and general manager of Oceaneering Space Systems.

According to a report in New Scientist, Nicola Pugno of the Polytechnic of Turin in Italy has calculated how many nanotubes would be needed to support a person, taking into account small defects that develop in the tubes during manufacture.

When held 5 micrometres apart, to keep them invisible, they would form a cable only 1 centimetre in diameter weighing a mere 10 milligrams per kilometre.

A plate with more closely spaced holes could slide along the cable, bringing the nanotubes closer, and so into view.

Further development of the idea might completely change acrobatic acts performed in the circus, as well as special effects used in movies.

Today NASA's Glast mission is going to launch a space telescope the goal of which is to spot the most violent events that take place in the universe. The telescope will be launched from Cape Canaveral air force station, located in Florida.

NASA hopes its new mission will help search the universe for gamma rays. It is worth mentioning that the gamma rays are emitted by the black holes, as well as amalgamation of neutron stars and streams of hot gas that travel through the universe at enormous speeds.

The new observatory costs $690 million and it is expected to take images of the gamma rays, thus providing answers about the source of cosmic rays, as well as the answer to how black holes are able to accelerate huge jets of material to a speed that is close to the speed of light.

According to the United States space agency the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (Glast) will be launched somewhere between 11.45am and 1.40pm EDT. However, the agency's representatives mentioned that there is a 40 percent probability that the launch will be aborted due to bad weather.

A number of tasks for the newest laboratory on the international space station were to be performed today by the astronauts from space shuttle Discovery. They had to fully extend the 33-foot robotic arm (the cost of which is about $1 billion). It is worth mentioning that the robotic arm has already been moved on Saturday, but only a little.

"They will do a series of motions. It will practically extend all the way out," mentioned flight director Annette Hasbrook.

When the test will reach the final stage, the robotic arm is going to be folded up and stored, so it won't be close to the windows of the laboratory. During summer the team of astronauts will carry on with robotic arm inspection and in the end the crew will use the arm to grab the storage shed that currently sits atop the laboratory.

Dramatic photographs have emerged of one of the few remaining peoples on earth who are thought to have had no contact with the outside world.

Indians are photographed during an over flight in May 2008, as they react to the over flight at their camp.

Taken from a small airplane, the photos show men outside thatched communal huts, necks craned upward, pointing bows toward the air in a remote corner of the Amazonian rainforest.

The National Indian Foundation, a government agency in Brazil, published the photos Thursday on its Web site. It tracks "uncontacted tribes" -- indigenous groups that are thought to have had no contact with outsiders -- and seeks to protect them from encroachment.

US researchers say they have made the darkest material on Earth, a substance so black it absorbs more than 99.9 per cent of light.

And the material is close to the long-sought ideal black, which could absorb all colours of light and reflect none.

"All the light that goes in is basically absorbed," said Pulickel Ajayan, who led the research team at Rice University in Houston.

"It is almost pushing the limit of how much light can be absorbed into one material."

The substance has a total reflective index of 0.045 per cent - which is more than three times darker than the nickel-phosphorous alloy that now holds the record as the world's darkest material.

Basic black paint, by comparison, has a reflective index of 5 per cent to 10 per cent.

Willis E. Lamb Jr., a Nobel Prize-winning physicist whose work on the electron structure of the hydrogen atom revolutionized the quantum theory of matter, has died. He was 94.

Lamb died in a Tucson hospital from complications of a gallstone disorder May 15, according to an announcement from the University of Arizona, where he was professor emeritus of physics and optical sciences.

Lamb worked as a physicist at various universities from the late 1930s until retiring from the University of Arizona in 2002.

Lamb was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1955 for research he conducted while working at Columbia University's Columbia Radiation Laboratory. He was working on defense-related research into microwave sources for radar when he became interested in the properties of the hydrogen atom.

He designed and built a device in 1947 with Columbia graduate student R.C. Retherford to study the effect of microwave radiation on the hydrogen atom, according to a University of Arizona biography. That led to measurements that showed a change in the amount of energy emitted from the hydrogen atom in different states that became known as the "Lamb shift."

Blood cholesterol is a risk factor for coronary artery disease and heart attack, so reducing your risk of high cholesterol is a worthy goal.

A smarter way of looking at cholesterol risk is by component.

However, the next time you brag that your cholesterol is nice and low -- or lament that your number is in the mid-200s -- know this:

"Your total cholesterol is a pretty meaningless number," says Maureen Mays, M.D., a preventive cardiologist and lipid specialist at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland.

"Not only does the general public not know this, some doctors don't either."