22 MAR 2012 by ideonexus

 The Supernova the Western World Didn't See

Almost 1000 years ago, Chinese astronomers observed a new star visible in the daytime sky, which they called a “guest star.” This supernova created what we now observe telescopically as the Crab Nebula. It is interesting that nowhere in Western Europe was this transient object recorded. Church dogma at the time declared the heavens to be eternal and unchanging, and it was much easier not to take notice than to be burned at the stake. Almost 500 years later, European astronomers had broken fre...
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But was recorded in China. An explanation for why it wasn't seen in Europe is that observers would probably be burned at the stake.

14 SEP 2011 by ideonexus

 What If Nuclear Power Sets Off a Chain Reaction with All ...

Should the research worker of the future discover some means of releasing this [atomic] energy in a form which could be employed, the human race will have at its command powers beyond the dream of scientific fiction, but the remotest possibility must always be considered that the energy once liberated will be completely uncontrollable and by its intense violence detonate all neighbouring substances. In this event, the whole of the hydrogen on earth might be transformed at once and the success...
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Quoting Francis William Aston: The end result would be published as a new star.