Terry Pearson’s Blog

As astronomers study space, we should not be surprised if they discover new stars and black holes. After all, there is unlimited amounts of space to discover.

There are times that are more momentous than others when one of the above items are discovered, especially when it helps validate what many believed to be true for a long time.

Marnee Shepperd is reporting that a black hole has been found at the center of a globular cluster in the Galaxy NGC 4472. This was discovered by the ESA.

They were planning on looking at several Globular star clusters to justify the idea that Black Holes might exist inside such a star formation. After only their second cluster, they found a black hole.

Space is something that has captured imaginations of everyone from kids, to sailors, to TV show makers. It is best described in Star Trek’s Theme as “The Final Frontier.”

Most of us will probably never get the opportunity to live the life of an astronaut, but we do have the ability to watch videos of space and of astronaut life.

NASA has built a site where visitors can watch the latest NASA videos right from your home computer. If you are fascinated by the world above, check out the link below:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html

My Google Personalized Homepage had a great quote on it today (in the “Quotes of the Day” widget):

All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance.
- Edward Gibbon

When I hear that quote, I think of what Governor Pawlenty always says. He always talks about the fact that Minnesota needs to be moving forward all the time, and that if we are simply remaining stationary, we are actually falling behind the crowd.

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If you think the term “retrograde” sounds familiar, you may have heard it in the term “retrograde motion.” Such motion is what we observe the planets doing from our vantage point. From earth, planets sometimes appear to fall backwards in their orbits.

This can be explained by the fact that the earth occasionally passes a planet in the race around the sun. When we pass another planet, it will appear to go backwards for a while. To see this concept in animated format, look at the University of Illinois Page on Retrograde Motion.

AI the Movie was a film that touched on subjects ranging from science fiction, to philosophy, to biology, etc. The movie’s modern Pinnochio theme made some laugh and some cry. One researcher had a different revelation from the movie.

When Professor Cynthia Breazeal saw the movie, she was inspired by the look and lifelikeness of the Teddy Bear on the movie. She decided to create her own version of the bear in her MIT labs.

Her creation, called Leonardo, is amazing. It thinks, learns, and gives expressions that some would believe were real feelings.

You can see the Leonardo Project at http://robotic.media.mit.edu/projects/Leonardo/Leo-intro.html.

If you would like to see some videos of Leonardo, please visit the Techblog’s Post on the Leonardo Project as well.

It is really fascinating what we can do with computers these days. We can create lifelike sensing robots that appear to have the characteristics of a person or a pet. These robots go far beyond what a Roomba does for humans. And, I can’t even imagine what sorts of algorithms must be used in Leonardo’s decision making process. It will be exciting to see what sort of “toys” they come up with next.