We all are aware of the guidelines that we all need to eat five portions of fruit and veg a day for optimal health, but with the publication of some recent research, it appears that five a day may not be sufficient.
Are you getting your 10-A-Day
Trevor O'Donoghue
Other worlds
When I was in secondary school, the first few pages of my geography book proclaimed our place in the universe. Earth was the third planet from the sun. One of nine planets in orbit around it. That was it, nine planets. Sure, there was a lot of talk about planets around other stars and Star Trek’s starship Enterprise would pay a visit to some of them every week. But in the real world we knew of nine.
Buying a telescope
With the end of the year fast approaching, it is certain that some children will receive a gift of a telescope this Christmas. Whilst a decent telescope is a wonderful gift, that can fire the imagination of a child, filling them with wonder and appreciation for the world around us, a poor quality telescope will achieve nothing but frustration. Unfortunately, this time of year there will be many poor quality telescopes,masquerading as the real deal.If the telescope packaging contains promises of “astronomical telescope” and claims like “up to 500 x magnification”, exercise extreme caution. Telescopes with descriptions like this are often not suitable for observing the sky, and if presented as a gift, may kill any budding curiosity about the night sky. A good telescope on the other hand, need not cost the earth, and can give many years of pleasure.
Heavy metals
Incredible news reports last week revealed that scientists have observed two neutron stars colliding in a galaxy 130 million light years from Earth. Not only that, but the power of the collision set up gravitational ripples in space-time, which eventually made it to us here on Earth.
Cassini mission winds down
Launched in 1997, the Cassini mission to Saturn sent it’s final images back to earth last week before plunging into the planet in a planned manoeuvre. It spent 13 years in orbit around the ringed planet, carried out some spectacular science and beamed some great images back to earth.