Edmonton fireball

Canadian astronomers have captured the descent of a meteor on camera. They hope it will help them find the rare meteorite.

Early Wednesday morning, special cameras at Athabasca University and the University of Alberta caught the image of a fireball streaking across the Edmonton sky.

Astronomy Prof. Martin Connors holds the Canadian Research Chair in Space Science at Athabasca University. He said the meteorite was bright enough to suggest it may have survived its fiery descent.

Full story here. YouTube video here -- not the astronomers' footage, but a recording from the camera on a police car on routine patrol.

Protist movement

Who needs to be multicellular or bilaterally symmetrical when you could be "blind, brainless, and completely covered in mud" instead?

A single-celled ball about the size of a grape may provide an explanation for one of the mysteries of fossil history.

That's one big cell!

Writing in Current Biology, researchers say the creature leaves tracks on the seabed which mirror fossilised tracks left up to 1.8 billion years ago. . .

Dr Matz says all tracks which predate the rapid evolution of life seen in the Cambrian explosion could come from protists.

"Pretty much anything within the Precambrian fossil record can in principle be attributed to large protozoans, from the earliest traces and fossils of the Stirling formation," he says.

From the BBC.

Doha museum opening

The new Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, the Qatari capital, blends the best of western architecture with traditional ideas of Islamic design, raising standards for the entire region.

Tomorrow Doha will host a legion of luminaries at the formal opening of the museum designed by I.M. Pei . . .

Approached by a bridge on which a riyad , or artificial stream, flows, the museum is set on an artificial island and distorts the sense of perspective, seeming smaller from the shore than it is. . .

The museum had been due to open in March but the deadline proved too ambitious. Oliver Watson, formerly of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, was brought in to ease the complex business of opening a fine art museum with world-class ambitions.

From the Financial Times. The museum itself does not appear to have a website, at least not an English-language one; there is a Wikipedia entry on it, however, with further links.

Modesty at the beach, Victorian edition

A rare Victorian bathing machine which attracted shy women swimmers to a popular resort is to be restored to its original splendour. . .

The 148-year-old blue and white striped hut, sitting on the shingle opposite the refreshment hut in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, was once as much of a draw to the resort as the sea.

Wheeled up and down the beach, it allowed women to preserve their modesty by changing into their bathing costume before using an attached cradle to enter the water, all the time being protected from preying eyes by modesty screens.

From the Telegraph. Just think, back then even the Burqini would surely have been seen as unacceptably daring.

Diamonds from tequila?

No, really -- read about it here.

Copernicus found

The long-lost skeleton of Nicolaus Copernicus -- the 16th-century astronomer who transformed our understanding of the solar system -- has been found, Polish researchers have confirmed.

Forensic detective work has successfully matched DNA samples recovered from remains in a cathedral grave with hairs retrieved from a book the scholar priest is known to have owned.

From the Guardian.

The greatest-ever watch heist?

For more than 20 years 'The Queen' rested in a cardboard box, shrouded in an old newspaper. This was the fate of one of the costliest pocket watches in the world, a brilliant masterpiece by the clockmaker Louis Breguet that was completed in 1827, a full 44 years after it was commissioned for Marie Antionette. It disappeared from public view in a burglary that took place on April 15, 1983, after many years of having been on display at the small LA Mayer Museum for Islamic Art in Jerusalem. There it formed part of a collection of 106 antique timepieces, among them the 'Sympathiques' clock - another Breguet masterpiece - and a pistol-shaped clock made by the Rochat Brothers. . .

Only this winter, 25 years after the burglary, did the Israeli police permit publication of the fact that a man who 40 years ago had become a criminal legend in Israel had committed the daring robbery single-handedly. Naaman Diller has been dead for fours years now, but the revelation that the former kibbutznik was the thief links two amazing stories from the annals of Israeli crime.

Full story here. It appears that a few of the timepieces were sold, but that most of them (and surely all of the most important ones) were squirreled away for decades by the thief.

Hearts of oak?

Most of Australia's navy is to be given two months off over Christmas as part of a new strategy to cope with crew shortages, the defence minister says. . .

Mr Fitzgibbon rejected claims by the opposition that the move would affect national security.

From the BBC.

Artists, energetically pursued

Was just pointed to the Rhode Island School of Design's Alumni page, where RISD alumni success is explained as follows:

Whether they are internationally recognized authors or illustrators, experimental glass artists, architects shaping the spaces we occupy, or designers and inventors whose products we use every day, their success is a tribute to the talents they possess and the energy with which they have been pursued.

Nothing like competition (or predation?) to get the ol' creative juices flowing. . . .

What really sank the Mary Rose?

Henry VIII's flagship Mary Rose was sunk by a French cannonball and this was covered up by political spin, according to a new academic study.

Until now it was believed a combination of wind and tide pressed Mary Rose over, causing her gun ports to flood in a 16th Century battle in the Solent.

But University of Portsmouth geographer Dominic Fontana said the truth was withheld to maintain the Navy's image.

From the BBC.