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Foods like cake are off-limit to coeliacsThe precise cause of the immune reaction that leads to coeliac disease has been discovered.
Three key substances in the gluten found in wheat, rye and barley trigger the digestive condition, UK and Australian researchers say.
This gives a potential new target for developing treatments and even a vaccine, they believe.
Coeliac disease is caused by an intolerance to gluten found in foods like bread, pasta and biscuits.
It is thought to affect around 1 in every 100 people in the UK, particularly women.
The link between gluten and coeliac disease was first established 60 years ago but scientists have struggled to pinpoint the precise component in gluten that triggers it.
The research, published in the journal, Science Translational Medicine, studied 200 patients with coeliac disease attending clinics in Oxford and Melbourne.
The volunteers were asked to eat bread, rye muffins or boiled barley. Six days later they had blood samples taken to measure their immune response to thousands of different gluten fragments, or peptides.
It’s an important piece of the jigsaw but a lot of further work remains so nobody should be expecting a practical solution in their surgery within the next 10 years.””
End Quote Sarah Sleet Coeliac UK
The tests identified 90 peptides that caused some level of immune reaction, but three were found to be particularly toxic.
Professor Bob Anderson, head of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia, said: “These three components account for the majority of the immune response to gluten that is observed in people with coeliac disease.”
Coeliac disease can be managed with a gluten-free diet but this is often a challenge for patients. Nearly half still have damage to their intestines five years after starting a gluten-free diet.
Professor Anderson said one potential new therapy is already being developed, using immunotherapy to expose people with coeliac disease to tiny amounts of the three toxic peptides.
Early results of the trial are expected in the next few months.
Sarah Sleet, Chief Executive of the charity Coeliac UK, said the new finding could potentially help lead to a vaccine against coeliac disease but far more research was needed.
She said: “It’s an important piece of the jigsaw but a lot of further work remains so nobody should be expecting a practical solution in their surgery within the next 10 years.”
The symptoms of coeliac disease vary from person to person and can range from very mild to severe.
Possible symptoms include diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting, recurrent stomach pain, tiredness, headaches, weight loss and mouth ulcers.
Some symptoms may be mistaken as irritable bowel syndrome or wheat intolerance.
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The deaths take the total of British troops killed in Afghanistan to 324Two British soldiers have been shot dead in Afghanistan while trying to rescue a wounded colleague.
A UK military spokesman said they died in the Lashkar Gah district of Helmand on Wednesday evening performing a “courageous and selfless act”.
One was from The Royal Dragoon Guards and the other from 1st Battalion Scots Guards. Their families have been told.
A total of 324 UK service personnel have been killed in Afghanistan since operations began in 2001.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said the soldiers were killed by small arms fire.
Evacuation attempt
Lt Col James Carr-Smith, spokesman for the British military’s Task Force Helmand, said: “The soldiers were part of a cordon operation providing security for a routine rotation of troops when they were killed by small arms fire.
“In the courageous and selfless act of attempting to evacuate an injured colleague, they themselves were shot and fatally wounded.
“They died helping their friends. Their sacrifice will never be forgotten. We will remember them.”
The bodies of four British servicemen killed in separate incidents in Afghanistan inside 24 hours will be repatriated to RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire on Thursday.
Staff Sgt Brett Linley, 29, of 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment, and Sgt David Monkhouse, 35, of The Royal Dragoon Guards, both died on Saturday.
Senior Aircraftman Kinikki Griffiths, 20, of 1 Squadron RAF Regiment, and Marine Jonathan Crookes, 26, of 40 Commando Royal Marines, died the previous day.
‘Mixed messages’
The latest deaths come after David Cameron defended the coalition government’s statements over plans to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.
The prime minister, his deputy Nick Clegg and Foreign Secretary William Hague have all said British forces would not remain in a combat role beyond 2015.
Mr Cameron has also said the pull-out would be “conditions-based”.
In the Commons, shadow foreign secretary David Miliband accused the government of sending out “mixed messages”.
Talking to the BBC, Mr Cameron said there was “absolutely no contradiction between the two things”.
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Aries horoscope for today
22 july 2010
In the morning you might encounter minor domestic difficulties. You are advised to keep calm. Tenderness and smooth talking may be very helpful in avoiding a fight.
You might not be doing great in the financial department, but you have to think positively. Money will come your way at the right time.
taurus horoscope for today
22 july 2010
This morning you might feel tired and confused and your practical sense could be diminished.
In such circumstances it is adviseable to avoid making major decisions.
You`d better stay to routine activities and try to rest more.
Gemini horoscope for today
22 july 2010
This is a favourable day for meeting with friends and having quality time with your loved one.
In the afternoon you might receive a significant amount of money from an older person in the family. You have good chances of being proposed an extra job, and you are advised not to make a hasty decision.
You may have an argument with an impulsive woman.
Cancer horoscope for today
22 july 2010
You will tend to be idealistic and feel that you are able to solve just about anything with no effort at all. Be more realistic, or you could be in for nasty surprises!
Choose your words carefully, for you are running the risk of hurting the feelings of an older person! Don`t try to impose your strong views on others!
Leo horoscope for today
22 july 2010
You might feel disappointed because a business meeting hasn`t turned out the way you planned.
This is not a favourable time for business, but you could spend quality time with your loved one.
You are advised to relax and rest more.
Virgo horoscope for today
22 july 2010
Although you have a lot on your hands, you may want to slow down.
In the morning you may feel tempted to spend too much. Be more careful with your expenses!
Today you might meet a special person who will later play an important part in your love life.
Libra horoscope for today
22 july 2010
This is not a good time for starting new activities, for you will tend to rush.
You will tend to be head-in-the-clouds and are running the risk of neglecting important matters. Put yourself together and prioritize!
You will have a busy time today, and effective time management can be the key.
Scorpio horoscope for today
22 july 2010
Although people may not really appreciate your ideas, you shouldn`t get upset.
You are advised not to sign any documents nor deal in business today.
On the other hand, you may have special satisfactions in your sentimental life.
Sagittarius horoscope for today
22 july 2010
In the morning you could be lacking practical sense and feel you are wasting your energy. Colleagues will be understanding and supportive.
You are advised not to take any chances. You can rely on your friends` support.
Capricorn horoscope for today
22 july 2010
Your schedule will change unexpectedly, but changes will prove to be rather beneficial to you.
You will have the opportunity to meet an important person who will help you in business.
You are advised not to make decisions on impulse. Financial speculations are to be avoided!
Aquarius horoscope for today
22 july 2010
You are advised to avoid starting new activities today, for unforeseen obstacles may arise.
In the morning you will have to run some errands that will upset your schedule.
You are advised to postpone dealing with difficult issues that require focusing.
Pisces horoscope for today
22 july 2010
In the morning you could be oversensitive and rather upset.
Today you may want to avoid making major decisions, for you will tend to be rather aloof.
Avoid controversies and hot arguments!
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Doug Mills/The New York TimesAfter signing the bill Wednesday in the Ronald Reagan Building, President Obama shared the moment with Paul A. Volcker, a former Federal Reserve chairman.
Senator Christopher Dodd, left, and Representative Barney Frank led committees that helped shape a bill overhauling how to respond to financial excesses.
Within minutes of the bill signing, several Wall Street groups were leveling criticism at the new regulations, reflecting Mr. Obama’s increasingly fractious relations with corporate America. The Business Roundtable complained in a statement that the law “takes our country in the wrong direction” and may discourage investment and job growth, echoing concerns made by the United States Chamber of Commerce and other business organizations. In a signal that Wall Street is ready to keep lobbying as regulators work out the details of how to apply the new law, Larry Burton, the roundtable’s executive director, said: “We will work with President Obama and policy makers to ensure this legislation is implemented in a manner that continues to promote sustainable economic growth and job creation.” Still, Democrats and White House officials were euphoric about passage of the legislation, a response to the 2008 financial crisis that tipped the nation into the worst recession since the Great Depression. The law subjects more financial companies to federal oversight and regulates many derivatives contracts while creating a consumer protection regulator and a panel to detect risks to the financial system. A number of the details have been left for regulators to work out, inevitably setting off complicated tangles down the road that could last for years. But “because of this law, the American people will never again be asked to foot the bill for Wall Street’s mistakes,” Mr. Obama said before signing the legislation. “There will be no more taxpayer-funded bailouts. Period.” He was surrounded by a group of mostly Democratic lawmakers and advocates of the overhaul legislation, including the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi of California, and the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, as well as Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut and Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, chairmen of crucial committees involved in developing the legislation. The White House orchestrated a major signing ceremony at the Ronald Reagan Building across from the Commerce Department to trumpet the new law. Mr. Obama took pains to try to show how the complex legislation, with its dense pages on derivatives practices, will protect ordinary Americans. “If you’ve ever applied for a credit card, a student loan or a mortgage, you know the feeling of signing your name to pages of barely understandable fine print,” Mr. Obama said. “But what often happens as a result is that many Americans are caught by hidden fees and penalties, or saddled with loans they can’t afford.” He said the law would crack down on abusive practices in the mortgage industry, simplifying contracts and ending hidden fees and penalties, “so folks know what they’re signing.” The law expands federal banking and securities regulation from its focus on banks and public markets, subjecting a wider range of financial companies to government oversight. It also imposes regulation for the first time on opaque markets like the enormous trade in credit derivatives. It creates a council of federal regulators, led by the Treasury secretary, to coordinate the detection of risks to the financial system, and it provides new powers to constrain and even dismantle troubled companies. And it creates a powerful regulator, to be appointed by the president and housed in the Federal Reserve, to protect consumers of financial products. The first visible result may come in about two years, the deadline for the consumer regulator to create a simplified disclosure form for mortgage loans. Mr. Obama acknowledged three Republican senators — Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe of Maine and Scott P. Brown of Massachusetts — who broke with their party to approve the bill, saying that they “put partisanship aside, judged the bill on the merits and voted for reform.”
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Raw diamonds are checked for their quality. Photo courtesy of AFP/Getty Images.The World Diamond Council recently announced that Zimbabwe will be allowed to sell its diamonds by September after an agreement was made with the Kimberly Process, which monitors trade in the precious stones to stop the use of blood diamonds’ to fuel conflicts.
This decision comes after much wrangling because the Zimbabweans say they need to earn foreign currency from the sale of the diamonds, while the Kimberly Process was concerned about reports of human rights abuses at Zimbabwe’s Marange diamond fields.
The Zimbabwe army is accused of killing and torturing hundreds of illegal diggers in the Marange diamond fields in 2006, which prompted the international community to stop buying Zimbabwean diamonds.
Now the Finance Minister Tendai Biti, who is one of the opposition leaders for the Movement for Democratic Change, has won a small victory by getting the green light for the sale of two batches of diamonds, which will take place under strict monitoring and regulation.
All in all, Zimbabwe says it holds a stockpile of 4 million carats of Marange diamonds, worth about $1.7 billion.
For Biti, selling just some of these will help boost the economy and offset the lack of donor aid, which has not come flooding into the country after a political agreement was made between Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF and the opposition MDC. Zimbabwe’s international debt is estimated at about 5.5 billion dollars.
So my question is, do you think this is a good thing? Should Zimbabwe be given a chance to sell diamonds to help earn much-needed revenue for its bankrupted state coffers? Or is this decision premature and are the abuses at the Marange diamond fields still occurring?
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- Hollywood producers couldn’t have written Colton Harris-Moore’s story better if they had dreamed it up themselves.
No one was surprised to hear that 20th Century Fox jumped at the chance to purchase the rights for a film based on the 19-year-old Washington native’s exploits.
Harris-Moore, suspected of stealing automobiles, boats and airplanes, as well as committing a number of other thefts, earned his nickname — the Barefoot Bandit — by committing some of his crimes without shoes. In 2009, police found footprints in an Iowa airport hangar.
Harris-Moore was apprehended on July 11 after a high-speed boat chase in the Bahamas. He has since been moved to Miami, Florida, where he appeared before a federal judge at an identity hearing. He is being transferred to a federal prison in Seattle, Washington.
His story, which mirrors 2002’s “Catch Me If You Can” — based on the true story of con-artist Frank Abagnale Jr. — has people talking, although details of the “Barefoot” film are still under lock and key.
“I wrote when he first started running that he would get a movie deal,” CNN commenter SICKBOY70 wrote. “They offered him a reward to come in that was nowhere near what the movie people would offer.”
Another CNN.com commenter, BostonChuck, wrote: “It’s a good thing he was caught, he was breaking the law. However… this all seems like something out of Hollywood. It’s going to make a heck of a movie!”
The prospect of a film version also has Hollywood casting directors talking about which young actor might play the role of the barefoot bandit.
“Crash” and “Iron Man” casting director Randi Hiller didn’t hesitate when asked which young Hollywood star would make a good barefoot bandit. “['Percy Jackson' star] Logan Lerman. … He’s young, he’s charming and he’s a really good actor,” Hiller said.
Lerman’s charm could come in handy, too. Hiller said It’s important to cast a likable young man because, while the Barefoot Bandit may be in the wrong, he’s also the protagonist. “You kind of root for him, even though he’s done something really, really wrong,” she added.
Regardless of who nabs the role, Hiller said the film is sure to do well. “Everybody wants more information.”
The movie will most likely follow the tone of “Catch Me If You Can,” Hiller said. “It’s not laugh out loud funny, but there’s definitely amusing bits.”
Casting director Tammara Billik, who also made the connection between the Barefoot Bandit and Leonardo DiCaprio’s “Catch Me If You Can,” said the movie will be a success, whether it’s on the big screen or the flat screen.
When casting a role like this one, it’s important to choose an actor who resembles the other person, she said. However, Billik added, it’s important to remember that “his story is more familiar than his face.”
“You don’t want somebody who can’t act, but looks exactly like the guy,” she added, noting that it might be difficult to find an actor with Harris-Moore’s 6-foot-5 frame — which is why she suggests taller actors like “Friday Night Lights’ ” Zach Gilford and “The Last Song’s” Liam Hemsworth
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After her father was shot to death by a white man, “I decided to stay in the South and work for change,” Shirley Sherrod said.– Shirley Miller Sherrod has spent most of her life fighting injustice.
On the Baker County, Georgia, farm where the Miller family grew corn, peanuts, cotton and cucumbers and raised hogs, cows and goats, oldest daughter Shirley despised the work.
“I swore I would never have anything to do with a farm past high school,” she said Wednesday with an easy chuckle. “I would talk to the sun as I picked cotton and picked cucumbers and worked out there in that hot field, and [say], ‘This is not the life for me.’ I didn’t want to have anything to do with agriculture ever again.”
On the night in 1965 when her father, Hosie Miller, a black man and a deacon at Thankful Baptist Church, was shot to death by a white farmer in what ostensibly was a dispute over a few cows, Sherrod — then 17 years old — changed her mind.
“I decided to stay in the South and work for change,” said Sherrod, now 62, who believes her father’s killing was more about a Southern black man speaking up to a white man than about who owned which animals. The all-white grand jury didn’t bring charges against the shooter.
That summer, when she and several other blacks went to the county courthouse to register to vote, the county sheriff blocked the door and even pushed her husband-to-be, Lester Sherrod, down the stairs, she said. Activists used that incident to get a restraining order against the sheriff so blacks could register to vote, she said.
Sherrod worked for civil rights with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee while studying sociology at Albany State University in Georgia. She later earned her master’s degree in community development from Antioch University in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
Sherrod returned to rural Georgia to help minority farmers keep their land in a place where history is against them. She has often gone toe to toe with the local offices of government agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture before she worked there, she said.
Sherrod was forced out of her job with the USDA this week after a video emerged in which she seemingly admitted to failing to try to help a white farmer save his land from foreclosure in 1986. She has since said her words, recorded in March at a Douglas County, Georgia, NAACP meeting, were deliberately taken out of context. The story, she said, was part of a broader message she has given many times about the need to move beyond race.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Wednesday afternoon that Sherrod is “owed an apology. I would do that on behalf of this administration.”
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Wednesday that he offered his “personal and profound apology for the pain and discomfort” caused to Sherrod and her family.
“It makes me feel better,” she said in response on CNN. “It took too long, but it makes me feel better that the apology’s coming.”
“… Why did they hire me in the first place if they didn’t believe in what I had done up to this point?”
What she had done is work tirelessly for minority farmers for four decades.
Because of discriminatory lending practices, black farmers were losing their farms in the late 1960s and ’70s. After college, Sherrod co-founded New Communities Inc., a black communal farm project in Lee County, Georgia, that was modeled on kibbutzim in Israel. Local white farmers viciously opposed the 6,000-acre operation, accusing participants of being communists and occasionally firing shots at their buildings, Sherrod said.
“They did everything they could to fight us,” she said.
When drought struck the South in the 1970s, the federal government promised to help New Communities through the Office of Economic Opportunity. But the money was routed through the state, led by segregationist Gov. Lester Maddox, and the local office of the Farmers Home Administration, whose white agent was in no hurry to write the checks, she said.
It took three years for New Communities to get an “emergency” loan, she said.
“By the time we got it, it was much too late,” Sherrod said.
The operation hobbled along for a few years with other financing, but creditors ultimately foreclosed on the property in 1985, she said.
Getting money for any minority farmer out of that FmHA office “was always a fight,” Sherrod said. But she made a point of learning the regulations so thoroughly that she understood them better than the bureau agent, she said.
“I was such a thorn in his side,” she said, that the agent eventually left the bureau for good.
Using that experience, Sherrod worked with the Federation of Southern Cooperatives to help black farmers keep their land. The group worked with U.S. Rep. Mike Espy, D-Mississippi (who later became agriculture secretary), and Sen. Wyche Fowler, D-Georgia, to pass the Minority Farmers Rights Act in 1990. The measure, known as Section 2501, authorized $10 million a year in technical assistance to black farmers, but only $2 million to $3 million a year has been distributed.
With black-owned farms heading toward extinction, Sherrod and other activists sued the USDA. In a consent decree, the USDA agreed to compensate black farmers who were victims of discrimination between January 1, 1981, and December 31, 1999. It was the largest civil rights settlement in history, with nearly $1 billion being paid to more than 16,000 victims. Legislation passed in 2008 will allow nearly 70,000 more potential claimants to qualify.
“I was deeply involved in all of that work and in the settlement, and in helping farmers to file their claims,” she said. “So I was having to fight USDA just for the services, for the loans for farmers, for some of the programs that should have been automatic, that others were getting.”
USDA hired Sherrod as its Georgia director of rural development in August 2009. She was the first black person in that position; of 129 USDA employees in Georgia, only 20 are black, she said.
Her family still owns the farm in Baker County, plus an additional 30 acres she bought from a cousin. She hasn’t had time to work the land yet.
“I’d like to try some of the things I’ve taught others,” she said, again laughing.
Sherrod emphasizes that the speech that caused all the controversy was about embracing diversity and using the strengths of every culture.
“We’ve got to get beyond this [racial division],” she said. “… My message has been, ‘Let’s work together.’ That’s what my message has always been.”
Despite her father’s killing and the injustices that followed, the racial hatred she has fought all her life, and now her quick exit from the USDA, Sherrod refuses to become bitter.
“I can’t hold a grudge. I can’t even stay mad for long,” she said. “I just try to work to make things different. If I stayed mad, if I tried to hate all the time, I wouldn’t be able to see clearly in order to do some of the things that I’ve been able to do.
“Even with this, I’m not angry. I’m not angry. I’m out of a job today, but I’m not angry. I will survive. I have. I can’t dwell on that. I just feel there’s a need to go forward.”
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Using high-tech robotic cameras, a team of scientists is getting a rare first glimpse of marine life in the North Atlantic that could shed light on the ocean’s ecosystem and climate to as far back as 1,000 years.
Images of tulip-shaped sponges, brightly colored corals, delicate pink stars and feathery organisms were among the breathtaking marine life beamed up by a submersible robot that scoured the ocean bed at a depth of some 9,800 feet [3,000 meters] off the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland.
The team, from three Canadian universities and the Spanish Institute of Oceanography, is in the midst of a 20-day expedition to study 11 areas under the protection of the North Atlantic Fisheries Organization.
Exploring these areas is important because they contain the “trees of the ocean,” said Ellen Kenchington, research scientist with the Fisheries Department of Canada. She is among the lead scientists in the expedition.
“It’s been really spectacular,” she told CNN affiliate CTV from her office at the institute as pictures from the robot streamed on her computer. “It’s really changing our perception of the diversity that’s out there. … We’re seeing new species in deeper waters.”
Kenchington told the Montreal Gazette that scientists potentially can look at the coral’s chemical composition and determine the temperature of the water and other data from 1,000 years ago.
“That’s how we are able to say if there is warming or a change in climate direction,” she said. “In order to understand the present, we need to put it into context.”
Corals have been a highly successful life form for 250 million years. They are tiny animals and polyps that exist as genetically identical individuals and can eat, defend themselves and kill plankton for food. In the process they also secrete calcium carbonate, which becomes the basis for an external skeleton on which they sit.
It’s really changing our perception of the diversity that’s out there. … We’re seeing new species in deeper waters.
–Ellen Kenchington, research scientist with the Fisheries Department of CanadaRELATED TOPICSThese calcified deposits can grow to enormous sizes over a long period of time and form coral reefs. The reefs are among the world’s most productive ecosystems and can harbor more than 4,000 species of fish and many other marine life forms.
Some estimates have suggested 20 percent of the world’s coral reefs are already dead and an additional 24 percent are gravely threatened.
In the week they have left in the expedition, Kenchington and her team hope to collect samples and video from the depths of the ocean to gain a new understanding of these corals as well as other marine life.
The underwater robot, operated by crew aboard the Canadian Coast Guard ship Hudson, is enabling the crew to go about 500 meters deeper than they have before.
Kenchington told CTV the research will also help them evaluate areas that are still too deep for current fishing technologies but could be accessible in years to come.
“This will enable us to give advice in the future about what types of organisms are in these areas before they’re fished,” she said.
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Zooming in on the most massive stars ever found. Star R136a1 (far right) is in a dense cluster of stars 165,000 light years from earthThey are among the true monsters of space - colossal stars whose size and brightness go well beyond what many scientists thought was even possible.
Continue reading the main story“Start Quote
Planets take longer to form than these stars take to live and die”
End Quote Prof Paul Crowther Sheffield University, UK
One of the objects, known simply as R136a1, is the most massive ever found.
The star is seen to have a mass about 265 times that of our own Sun; but the latest modelling work suggests at birth it could have been bigger, still.
Perhaps as much as 320 times that of the Sun, says Professor Paul Crowther from Sheffield University, UK.
“If it replaced the Sun in our Solar System, it would outshine [it] by as much as the Sun currently outshines the full Moon,” the astronomer told BBC News.
The stars were identified by Crowther’s team using a combination of new observations on the Very Large Telescope facility in Chile and data gathered previously with the Hubble Space Telescope.
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R136, a cluster of young, massive and hot stars (ESO). Astronomer Maggie Aderin-Pocock explains why the discovery is significant
The group studied the NGC 3603 and RMC 136a clusters - regions of space where thick clouds of gas and dust are collapsing into even denser clumps.
In these places, huge stars ignite to burn brief but brilliant lives before exploding as supernovas to seed the Universe with heavy elements.
NGC 3603 is relatively close in cosmic terms - just 22,000 light-years distant. RMC 136a (more often nicknamed R136) is slightly further away, and is sited within one of our neighbouring galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud, some 165,000 light-years away.
The team found several stars with surface temperatures over 40,000 degrees - more than seven times hotter than our Sun.
The research shows these young stellar objects to be unbelievably bright, truly massive and also extremely wide - perhaps 30 times the radius of our Sun in the case of R136a1.
How big is big? Star comparisons
This artist’s impression (L) shows the relative sizes (radius) of young stars, from low mass “yellow dwarfs” such as our Sun, through “blue dwarf” stars that are eight times more massive than the Sun, to a 300 solar-mass star like R136a1 (R). There are a number of low-density giants that are known to have an even bigger radius than R136a1 Up close the stars would look a mess, however. Unlike our Sun which appears as a defined disc on the sky, the giants identified by Professor Crowther and colleagues would be losing so much material through powerful winds from their puffed up atmospheres that they would have a fuzzy look about them.
One thing seems for sure - no planets would exist in orbit about them.
“Planets take longer to form than these stars take to live and die. Even if there were planets, there would be no astronomers on them because the night sky would be almost as bright as the day in these clusters,” Professor Crowther joked.
Europe’s VLT facility is sited in Chile“Some of these big stars are relatively close to each other, so even at ‘night’ you’d have another very bright star shining on you.”
Previously observed giants had been seen to get as big as 150 times the mass of our Sun. The latest findings raise interesting questions about what the upper limits on size might be.
Ordinarily, there should come a point where the pressure from all the radiation emitted by a stellar behemoth pushes back against any further infall of gas and dust. In other words, there ought to be a physical barrier to excessive star growth.
But Professor Crowther adds a second factor - that of resource. There may not exist in today’s Universe places that have sufficient supplies of gas and dust to feed ever more massive stars.
However, the new observations do give a tantalising glimpse of what the very early Universe might have been like. Many objects in the very first population of stars to shine shortly after the Big Bang are thought to have been monsters like R136a1.
When these objects blew apart, their cataclysmic demise was so violent they may not have left behind a remnant core of material as is often the case following a supernova; or even a black hole which is another common consequence, too.
Instead, these giants may simply have dumped all their contents back into space, dispersing heavy elements like iron equivalent to the mass of 10 of our Suns.
“The bigger picture to this research is that it gives us confidence that there were probably more of these really massive stars in much greater numbers early on in the Universe,” Professor Crowther told BBC News.
The new results appear in a paper in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
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North is the sixth Australia wicket to fall as
Kamran Akmal holds the catchSalman Butt enjoyed a dream first day
at the helm as Pakistan built a 60-run lead after bowling out Australia
for 88 on the opening day of the final Test.Australia chose
to bat but were 41-5 by the 17th over as Pakistan’s three main seamers
extracted prodigious movement.Teenage left-armer Mohammad Aamer
took 3-20 and Mohammad Asif 3-30, with Tim Paine last out having top
scored on 17.Butt shared an opening stand of 80 with Imran
Farhat in reply as his side made 148-3 before bad light curtailed play.Australia
are 1-0 up in the two-match series and few could have expected their
lowest Test total since 1984.There had been over two inches of
rain in Leeds overnight and overcast skies gave even greater incentive
for the bowlers, but Australia captain Ricky Ponting opted to bat first.Indeed Ponting has not asked a team to bat first since the Ashes
series of 2005 at Edgbaston when England amassed 400 on the first day.The
opening six overs produced little threat to the batsmen but then the
Pakistan seamers began to find their line, and accompanied the accuracy
with some stunning movement in the air and off the pitch.
Smith had no answer to a stunning Aamer burst
immediately after lunchSimon Katich was the first of five wickets inside 11 overs, trapped
lbw having moved too far across, while Shane Watson was plumb lbw to one
from Mohammad Asif that swung back in sharply.Michael Clarke
was fortunate not to have been out lbw on three but did not add any
further runs when he was beaten by Umar Gul, who had swung several
deliveries away before he nipped one back to move through the gate.Ponting
will perhaps never have made a scratchier six, from 21 balls, and was
lbw after losing his balance trying to play across his pad.The
expected fightback was simply not allowed to happen, Pakistan aware that
a full ball would zip through with swing and seam but a short one would
lose pace and effectiveness.One man who might have helped
Australia out of the mire was Mike Hussey but he was unluckily given out
lbw when one from Gul appeared to be doing too much and heading down
the leg-side.Butt’s hunch to try the medium pace of Umar Amin
was rewarded when more swing found the edge of Marcus North’s bat to
give the 20-year-old a maiden Test wicket.It was 73-6 at lunch
but lingering hopes of a recovery were swiftly ended with the first two
balls of the afternoon session by the impressive 18-year-old Aamer.
First he breached Steve Smith’s defences and then produced an even
better one that swung dramatically away from left-hander Mitchell
Johnson and crashed into the timbers.The innings quickly
subsided but thoughts that the Pakistan innings would follow a similar
pattern were soon averted.There were some excellent deliveries
but the Australian bowlers were not able to produce them as consistently
as their opponents had done.The Pakistan batting was also
commendably disciplined, Butt finally undone by some late swing from Ben
Hilfenhaus as a full delivery crashed into the stumps.Australia
took two more wickets but with dark clouds gathering and causing the
light to deteriorate rapidly Ponting turned to leg-spinner Smith, whose
second ball was smashed for six by Umar Akmal as Pakistan continued
their domination.As he reflects on a torturous day, the
Australia skipper may choose to look back to January this year at
Sydney, when he decided to bat first, his team were all out for 127 but
went on the win that match.Australia coach Tim Nielsen admitted his side’s performance was poor
and said: “When you walk off and you have 88 next to 11 batsmen it’s not
a good enough total. We never got a smell of getting a partnership
going.“We were surprised to see how dry the wicket was this
morning, we thought it was going to be hard against the new ball but
would then flatten out to be a nice batting wicket.“Pakistan
bowled beautifully, hit the wicket hard and didn’t just expect the
conditions to do it for them. The ball certainly swung around, we were
not good enough to stop the rot.”Gul, who captured 2-16, said of
Ponting’s decision to bat first: “There was moisture under the wicket
so I think it was a shocking decision, especially for Australia.“I
don’t know what the captain and coach’s decision was going to be but if
we won the toss we (the Pakistan bowlers) were ready to bowl first.“When
the clouds come it starts swinging and when the sun comes it is a bit
flat and good for the batsmen. It all depends on the clouds when you can
get some swing and seam.“It was a good day for us. The bowlers
did very well. Aamer, Asif and myself did very well as we planned before
the game.“We are planning to put on another 150 to lead by
around 200. We need to bat well to get that and then we will have a good
chance.”View this Post in:
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