Earlier this week, we told you about the vampiric ways of blue stragglers. Now Nature has published two papers on blue stragglers, which together prove that these bizarre stars are the result of interstellar violence and colonization.

According to Nature:

Blue straggler stars - hotter and more massive than would be expected for their apparent age - are found in stellar clusters, where all the stars are thought to have formed at the same time. Massive stars exhaust their nuclear fuel more quickly than their low-mass counterparts; it is therefore remarkable that the stragglers have not yet evolved into red giants, or the cooling stellar remnants known as white dwarfs. A likely explanation is that blue stragglers originate from normal stars that have undergone a recent increase in mass - either through stellar collision and merger, or by mass transfer between binary companions.

Now it seems that both mechanisms are at work. Francesco Ferraro and colleagues report the existence of two distinct populations of blue stragglers in the globular cluster M30, one redder than the other. They present evidence that the redder stars formed from mass transfer within binaries, whereas the bluer stars formed from stellar collisions. Meanwhile, Robert Mathieu and Aaron Geller studied blue stragglers in another cluster in our Galaxy, the open cluster NGC 188. They report that 76% of the blue stragglers in the cluster are in binary systems - a frequency three times that found among the normal stars. From this observation, and some unusual features of the binary orbits, the authors conclude that most or all of the blue stragglers in NGC 188 formed from multiple-star systems, and that both mass transfer and stellar collisions were involved.

via Nature (first article and second article)

Actually, I haven't seen a copy of Relentless yet, but after reading the Publishers Weekly review, I'm dying to:

A bad book review propels this farcical thriller from bestseller Koontz (Your Heart Belongs to Me). Bestselling author Cullen "Cubby" Greenwich is mortified when Shearman Waxx, "the nation's premier literary critic," savages his work. Cubby manages to find the "syphilitic swine" at Roxie's Bistro in Newport Beach, Calif., where the author's six-year-old prodigy son nearly pees by accident on Waxx in the restaurant's men's room. In retaliation, Waxx threatens Cubby with doom and gets things started nicely by blowing up his house. With almost superhuman ease, the book critic keeps track of Cubby and his family as they flee for their lives. While some may take this as satire, the over-the-top villain's underdeveloped motivation and a jokey narrative tone that jars when juxtaposed with terrifying scenes of violence will leave others scratching their heads. By the time Koontz introduces a science fiction element, a lot of readers may have already checked out. (June)

I'm dying to know what the "science fiction element" Koontz introduces could be. Is literary critic Shearman Waxx actually a cyborg, or a genetically engineered superweapon, like in Watchers? An alien? The only hint I can find is this bit from the book blurb:

But Shearman Waxx isn't what Cubby expects; and neither is the escalating terror that follows what seemed to be an innocent encounter. For Waxx gives criticism; he doesn't take it. He has ways of dealing with those who cross him that Cubby is only beginning to fathom. Soon Cubby finds himself in a desperate struggle with a relentless sociopath, facing an inexorable assault on far more than his life.

What do you think "far more than his life" could mean? And more importantly, is Dean Koontz now expecting the Publishers Weekly reviewer to come blow up his house and terrorize his family?

A team of astrophysicists led by Mark Krumholz at University of California Santa Cruz have been using computers to model the behavior of proto-supermassive stars. In this video, you can see what happens when a ball of firey gas starts to turn into a supermassive star. First, the star explodes as it's forming. The explosion throws out balls of gas that turn into a star system of several massive stars orbiting the original proto-star. On the left, you can see the star system from above; on the right, you see a cutaway view from the side.

Eventually, this model predicts, the original star will eat the other stars in the system with it. And the result could be a star far more massive than the one our planet revolves around. The best part of this study is that it's basically the astrophysics equivalent of a Michael Bay movie: It's all about the behavior of REALLY GIANT explosions. In space!

What Krumholz and his team have proven here is that stars can grow larger by accretion - accumulating more matter - even after they've ignited into a ball of continuous nuclear explosions. Until recently, it was believed that stars emitted so much energy that they couldn't continue to absorb gas and other matter after they had ignited.

SOURCES:

The Formation of Massive Star Systems by Accretion via Science

Big Stars Resist Dieting via Science Now

A spokesperson for E.ON, the company building the biomass power station to replace the Tinsley towers, told the UK Guardian:

One tower went down perfectly. The second only came down partially, a third [of it] was left standing - not exactly what we hoped for. There were rumours they hit the motorway. But when the dust cleared the Highways Agency said there was absolutely no debris on the [nearby M1] motorway. One of our teams chipped away at the concrete where it had become stuck and it finally came down at 5.30am.

Photos by Christopher Furlong/Getty.

Thousands Watch Fall of Tinsley Towers [UK Guardian]

With over a hundred videos to choose from, there are going to be plenty of highlights to choose from. Make sure you hit the explosive vids (as noted above), as well as Mercury and Helium — no bangs there, but with Hg, Peter License talks about how he used to "play football (soccer) with it with our fingers back in school. We don't do that now because we care about our safety."

Take some time and noodle around through this awesome treasure trove of video chemistry, and whenever you find Peter License (he of the cackling) with a matchstick in his hand, you know a ball of fire is soon to follow. That's usually spliced in with Martyn Poliakoff soothingly delivering interesting tidbits about whatever element you're watching.

Source: The Periodic Table of Videos, via Creative Synthesis

According to a release from NASA:

"We found a clock that ticks slower and slower, and when it slows down too much, boom! The bomb explodes," says lead author Diego Altamirano of the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

The bursts occur on a neutron star, which is the collapsed remnant of a massive star that exploded in a supernova. The neutron star belongs to a binary system that can be described as a ticking time bomb. Hydrogen and helium gas from a companion star spirals onto the neutron star, slowly accumulating on its surface until it heats up to a critical temperature. Suddenly, the hydrogen and helium begin to fuse uncontrollably into heavier elements, igniting a thermonuclear flame that quickly spreads around the entire star. The resulting explosion appears as a bright flash of X-rays.

These bursts, which can occur several times per day from the same neutron star, release more energy in just 10 to 100 seconds than our Sun radiates in an entire week. Put another way, the energy is equivalent to 100 fifteen-megaton hydrogen bombs exploding simultaneously over each postage-stamp-size patch of the neutron star's surface.

NASA satellite pins down time of explosions [Eurekalert]

[ShockTillYOuDrop]

• Alien: Blowing up the Nostromo in order to kill one single Alien was one of the biggest (and best) sacrifices in movie history, and the resulting explosion as Ripley flees in the shuttle still stands alone as a perfect example of why you don't need 40 billion rendered polygons showing you just how the ship would look as it broke up into its component atoms. (You can see video of it above.) Plus, you have the audible countdown over the ship's PA system literally beating a ticking clock against Sigourney's ass every step of the way. It worked so good that they decided to repeat it in Aliens.
• Battlestar Galactica — "Exodus Part 2": Lee Adama's emotional outbursts might not win him another command anytime soon, because when he took over as the helmer of the Pegasus he got complacent and fat. However, he redeemed himself by sacrificing his superior ship (with its fighter-building ability) in order to save the Galactica, his pop, and everyone on the planet below. This still stands as one of the most powerful moments in the show. Just when you think everything is hopeless, the camera pulls extremely far back, and... boom. Pegasus to the short-lived rescue.

  
  

• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock: Captains of the Enterprise sure have been careless with their ships. What are they on, Enterprise-Q by now? However, the first time the Enterprise was sacrificed was probably the best. Faced with insurmountable odds, Kirk proves he's best at surviving by activating the ship's self-destruct sequence and letting it take out some nosy Klingons. As he watched it burn to cinders from the planet below, he asks Bones "My god, what have I done." Nothing that Starfleet will court martial him for, apparently.

  

• The Fifth Element: Even cruise ships aren't safe in this film, especially when carrying blue-skinned singing divas with stones buried in their stomachs. The poor luxury spaceliner Fhloston Paradise survives an attempt by Zorg to blow it to smithereens, only to find itself blown up moments later by someone with the sense to use a very short timer and not a wonky thing that you deactivate with a hotel cardkey. Cool escape pods, though.

• Tron: While fleeing Sark and his troops, Tron and his girlriend Yori narrowly escape on a Syd Mead designed Solar Sailer, which rides beams of light around Tronworld. Sark's massive carrier eventually catches up with it and opens up a ship-chomping hole, reducing it to pieces. The best comparison would be if a modern-day aircraft carrier chewed up a catamaran. Sark and the others leave the ship, and he orders it to be derezzed, which is what is really cool about Tron. If you need something, the system can rez it up, and when you're done, you just recycle it.

  

• Lost in Space: Bonehead Joey, er... Major West uses remote control to ignite the engines on the superior Proteus, full of futuretech and possibly life-saving equipment in order to get hull-burning space spiders off the Jupiter 2. However, not content to just let them burn up in the engine's wake, he also makes the ship self-destruct. Even though his ship has had its systems majorly trashed by the malfunctioning Robot, he still blows up the first sweet ride they find. Oh, and it manages to make their own ship crash. Genius.

• The Last Starfighter: When video game expert turned space pilot Alex keys the "Death Blossom" onboard his Gunstar, it turns into a hypersonic laser death machine. However, once it's in the post-orgasmic glow it's rendered dead and useless. They can't even steer out of the way of Xur's approaching ship, which shipicides itself into a moon. However, that bastard Xur got away, never to be caught since the movie didn't get a sequel.

  

• Independence Day: This is more of a shipicide from within, but when Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith fly up to the alien mothership and plant the virus, they're basically giving the thing a huge case of indigestion, which it doesn't quite recover from. Sadly (or maybe gladly) I couldn't get a clip from this since three of the Blockbuster stores I visited in Los Angeles don't carry ID4. Lame. But as a bonus, enjoy this clip mashing up Star Wars with Independence Day. Randy Quaid uses the Force.

  

• Return of the Jedi: While this one wasn't done on purpose, it's sort of a hilarious "Oops" moment as a rebel A-Wing pilot banzais into the bridge of the Imperial Flagship Super Star Destroyer Executor. This causes the ship to veer out of control and crash right into the the new and improved Death Star. Either that was one extremely lucky hit on the bridge, or whoever built the windshield of that thing needs to be fired. It can withstand the rigors of laser fire and hyperspeed, but can't take the impact of a measly A-Wing? I wonder if that have a transportation safety board that investigates these things.

  

• Vanilla Sky: Cameron Diaz gets an honorable mention in this film for tanking her "ship" (okay, a Buick Skylark) off a bridge in an effort to die in a warped suicide love pact with Tom Cruise. Let this be a note to you love 'em and leave 'em types out there: if you scorn someone, they may seek revenge, fuck up your face, and force you to go into a bizarre cryogenic freeze / lucid dreaming / virtual reality state of existence. Just so you know.

  

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Future Navy ships will use electric drive propulsion, making the electric-powered railgun possible. The railgun sends current along parallel rails, creating an electromagnetic force so powerful, it can shoot a metal projectile at record-breaking speeds. Photos by AP/U.S. Navy, John F. Williams [Gizmodo]

Image by AP Photo/EyePress.

Here's the boat that launched the interceptor SM-3. Very groovy and World War II.
And here's the missile going up into space.
AP Photo/Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, HO.