Three quick scientific updates.

1. Remember the Czar going on about being careful with a claim about what the universe was like prior to the Big Bang? Fortunately, even the legendary Dr. Penrose is not above being lectured to. Evidently, other researchers have looked at the data and are convinced the concentric rings he spotted were just noise. This does not disprove Dr. Penrose’s bizarre theory, but it certainly takes away a key piece of evidence he’d been celebrating. See what happens when scientists share data?
2. And that isn’t all. Last week, the blogs all lit up celebrating this discovery that some California bacteria are able to use arsenic much in the same way that every other species uses phosphorus. Mmm—not so fast. A number of questions have come up, with some of the claims bordering on accusations of fraud. Stay tuned.
3. If you are into cool stuff, astronomers in Northern Ireland have discovered that a star (LS IV-14 116, which you should easily find on your maps) appears to have a shroud of vaporized zirconium (yeah, the fake diamond stuff) covering it like stratus clouds. Although the star appears to lack a corona, the Czar is uncertain why light pressure is not pushing those clouds off and away in a stellar wind, or why concentrations of other elements are not as obvious. Still, it is hard enough to think of zirconium as a gas, let alone clouds of it floating along the surface of a distant star.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.