Rogue stars ejected from the galaxy are found in intergalacticspace - Wood Engraving Machines

It's very difficult to knock a star out of the galaxy. In fact, themain mechanism that astronomers have come up with that can give astar the two-million-plus mile-per-hour kick it takes involvestangling with the supermassive black hole at the galaxy's core. So far astronomers have found 16 of these "hypervelocity" stars.Although they are traveling fast enough to eventually escapegalaxy's gravitational grasp, they have been discovered while theyare still inside the galaxy. Now, Vanderbilt astronomers report in a recent issue of theAstronomical Journal that they have identified a group of more than675 stars on the outskirts of the Milky Way that they argue arehypervelocity stars that have been ejected from the galactic core.

They selected these stars based on their location in intergalacticspace between the Milky Way and the nearby Andromeda galaxy and bytheir peculiar red coloration. "These stars really stand out. They are red giant stars with highmetallicity which gives them an unusual color," says AssistantProfessor Kelly Holley-Bockelmann who conducted the study withgraduate student Lauren Palladino. In astronomy and cosmology, "metallicity" is a measure of theproportion of chemical elements other than hydrogen and helium thata star contains. In this case, high metallicity is a signature that indicates aninner galactic origin: Older stars and stars from the galacticfringes tend to have lower metallicities.

The researchers identified these candidates by analyzing themillions of stars catalogued in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. "We figured that these rogue stars must be there, outside thegalaxy, but no one had ever looked for them. So we decided to giveit a try," said Holley-Bockelmann, who is studying the behavior ofthe black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Astronomers have now found evidence for giant black holes at thecenters of many galaxies. They estimate that the Milky Way'scentral black hole has a mass of four million solar masses. Laserpoint Vinyl Cutter

Theycalculate that the gravitational field surrounding such asupermassive black hole is strong enough to accelerate stars tohypervelocities. The typical scenario involves a binary pair of stars that getcaught in the black hole's grip. As one of the stars spirals intowards the black hole, its companion is flung outward at atremendous velocity. A second scenario takes place during periods when the central blackhole is in the process of ingesting a smaller black hole. Any starthat ventures too close to the circling pair can also get ahypervelocity kick. Wood Engraving Machines

Red giant stars are the end stage in the evolution of small, yellowstars like the Sun. So, the stars in Holley-Bockelmann's roguesgallery should have been small stars like the Sun when they tangledwith the central black hole. As they traveled outward, they continued to age until they reachedthe red giant stage. Even traveling at hypervelocities, it wouldtake a star about 10 million years to travel from the central hubto the spiral's edge 50,000 light years away. "Studying these rogue stars can provide us with new insights intothe history and evolution of our home galaxy," saidHolley-Bockelmann. Laserpoint Vinyl Cutter

The researchers next step is determine if any oftheir candidates are unusually red brown dwarfs instead of redgiants. Because brown dwarfs produce a lot less light than redgiants, they would have to be much closer to appear equally bright. Heather Morrison at Case Western Reserve University, PatrickDurrell and John Feldmeier at Youngstown State University, RobinCiardullo and Richard Wade at Pennsylvania State University, and J.Davy Kirkpatrick and Patrick Lowrance at the California Instituteof California also contributed to the research, which was funded bythe National Science Foundation and the Department of Education'sGraduate Assistance in Areas of National Need fellowship.

Vietnam 'cancer-cure' horn habit threat to world rhinos - Cryolipolysis Equipment

For desperate Vietnamese cancer patients ground rhinoceros horn isseen as an elixir of life -- a medically unproven and illegalobsession that threatens the very survival of the world's wildrhinos. The substance, which shares the same protein found in humanfingernails, sells for thousands of dollars an ounce in Vietnam.Soaring demand has led to a bloodbath in South Africa as poacherskill record numbers of the creatures. "I was diagnosed with stomach cancer nine years ago. I've triedeverything including rhino horn powder every day.

Now, doctors havetold me I'm in a stable condition," wealthy Hanoi-basedoctogenarian Nguyen Hung told AFP. "I have lots of money, I am old (and) I just love to live... I haveno reason not to spend money on buying the expensive rhino hornsand drinking its powder if it helps me," said Hung, who asked hisreal name be withheld. Targeted medical studies have shown that rhino horn has no medicalbenefits. Two cancer patients taking rhino horn as part of theirtreatment who were contacted by AFP for this story died beforeinterviews could be arranged.

But many in Vietnam believe the horn has miracle healing propertiesand the communist country's voracious appetite for the substancehas become the main driver of global demand. Tran Thi Hiep, a 60-year-old retired official who discovered atumour on her neck six years ago and has been using rhino horn,said that traditional Vietnamese culture encourages people to tryevery possible treatment. "When we are sick, we should pray to the four corners of the earthfor a cure," she said, quoting a common Vietnamese saying. On Hanoi's Lan Ong street, a bustling hub for traditional medicine,nearly every shop sells special ceramic dishes that have a coarsesurface on which rhino horn is gently grated down. Diamond Microdermabrasion Machine

"Rhino horn is used to prevent and to cure cancer... You need togrind it into a powder before serving it with water or alcohol,"Tran Thu Thao, a specialist in Vietnamese traditional medicine,told AFP. A hundred grams costs up to 120 million dong ($5,000) on the blackmarket, she said. There is also a huge trade in counterfeit horn as local demand faroutstrips supply and Thao said well-known traders have months-longwaiting lists for the genuine substance. Cryolipolysis Equipment

-- 'A symbol of status' -- Buying and selling rhino horn is illegal in Vietnam, butenforcement is lax and prosecutions for smuggling horns into thecountry are few and far between -- the last was reportedly in 2005. Traders also exploit legal grey areas, legally importing "trophy"horns from licensed shoots in South Africa that conservation groupssay can then disappear into the blackmarket because Vietnam doesnot conduct follow up checks. "Rhino horn is now well beyond simply a luxury item used as asymbol of status," said Naomi Doak of conservation group TRAFFIC,adding that the horn was also in demand as a cure for a variety ofeven mundane ailments. The trade has become a lucrative business for criminal syndicates. "There is a lot less risk involved with smuggling rhino horn thanwith drugs, in terms of detection, prosecution and penalties, andyou get more money for the rhino horn," she said. China Slimming Beauty Equipment

"This is now seenvery much as the key threat to (rhino) conservation." An explosion in Asian demand for horn saw a record 448 rhinospoached in South Africa last year -- compared with just 13 in 2007-- and the rate is increasing, with over 170 killed so far thisyear. Vietnam's own critically endangered species of rhinoceros, theJavan rhino, was poached to extinction in 2010. A surge in hunting permit applications from Vietnam has promptedSouth Africa to suspend issuance and ask Hanoi to conductinspections to verify that exported trophies are still in thepossession of the hunters. But senior police man Tran Huy Tu, who had a stroke three years agoand is himself an ardent user of rhino horn, say such efforts willlikely be in vain.

"Vietnamese have been going to South Africa to try and bring backrhino horns for years," said Tu, who asked that his name be changedto avoid prosecution. Tu takes rhino horn regularly to counterbalance heavy work pressureand a large drinking habit. "I can drink a lot of alcohol but I am still sober and strong. Idon't have a headache and I do not feel tired.

It has some effects,I believe," Tu told AFP. "It's not legal to buy this stuff, but inVietnam you can buy anything with money -- or lots of money," hesaid.

Nutrient supply after algal bloom determines the succession of thebacterial population

Algal blooms can considerably interfere with summer holidays by thesea. In the coastal zone of temperate regions a spring algal bloomis not a sign of excessive nutrient input, but most of all aconsequence of the more intense solar irradiation in spring. Whenalgal blooms end, the algae die and their remnants constitute animportant nutrient supply for the whole ecosystem. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute in Bremen, along withtheir co-authors from the University of Greifswald, the JacobsUniversity, and the Alfred Wegener Institute for Marine and PolarResearch, examined an algal bloom in the North Sea and identifiedthe microorganisms involved in the degradation of algal remnants. With their findings, the researchers discovered a solution for theso-called Plankton paradox: by specializing in differentdegradation processes, bacteria apparently occupy separateecological niches in the sea.

For their analyses the scientists filtrated several hundreds oflitres of seawater on a regular basis for almost a year off thestation "Kabeltonne", a long-term station of the BiologischeAnstalt Helgoland that is part of the Alfred Wegener Institute. "Pelagic microorganisms, the so called bacterioplankton, arecritical for the breakdown of the dead algal biomass. Especiallythe dynamic succession in the bacterioplankton caught ourattention. Specialized bacterial populations accompany differentphases of the algal bloom", says Hanno Teeling from the Max PlanckInstitute As the scientists could show, processes within thebacterial population control the degradation of the algae.

His colleague Bernhard Fuchs who has been investigating thediversity and bacterioplankton composition for many years at theMax Planck Institute, adds: "For the first time we performed a highresolution analysis of the microbial community at genus level. Wecould not only identify the bacterial groups but also theirfunctional tools, the enzymes that are involved in the breakdown ofthe algal bloom". Rudolf Amann, Director of the Max Planck Institute explains: "Thesecret at the level of the microorganisms is the heterogeneity ofthe microniches that the different groups inhabit. Thus, thespecialized populations complement each other in the degradation ofthe organic matter." The scientists used a novel combination of techniques for theiranalyses. They determined the identity of the microorganisms byCARD-FISH, an in situ technology that can be applied directly toenvironmental samples. Cellulite Cavitation

Additionally, they probed the bacterialpopulation during and after the algal bloom by short sequences of aphylogenetic marker gene (16S rRNA pyrotag analyses). "By using a combination of metagenome and metaproteome analyses wesucceeded to detect the active key enzymes in complex environmentalsamples. This allows us to infer the role of the respectivebacterial groups from their metabolic function", explains ThomasSchweder from the University of Greifswald. "This was only possibly by the computer-controlled integration ofall data through bioinformatics,", states Frank Oliver Glocknerfrom the Max Planck Institute and Jacobs University. China Cellulite Cavitation

In the early phase of the algal bloom the scientists encountered avariety of enzymes for the degradation of complex algalcarbohydrates such as laminarin. At a later stage transportproteins for peptides, short protein units, and transporters forthe growth limiting nutrient phosphate and simple sugar componentsdominated the enzymatic cocktail. Noteworthy was the high portion of certain transport proteins, theTonB-dependent transporters that can transport larger moleculesdirectly into the interior of the cells. This discovery may disprove the conventional acceptance thatlong-chained molecules need to be broken up into smaller componentsbefore the cell can take them up. IPL Beauty Equipment

The TonB-transporter may enablethe Flavobacteria, one of the dominating bacterial groups, tocouple the assimilation and degradation and thus to gain acompetitive advance towards other bacterial groups. At the end of the bloom the bacteria increasingly producedsulfatases that cleave sulfate esters from algae carbohydrates hardto decompose and thus allow the complete degradation of thesesubstances. Hence, the scientists discovered a bacterial populationin the algae bloom that did not only differ in its composition butalso in its function from the bacterial community found in crystalclear, remote open waters.