Space-time, screensavers, and scarabs

Meet my latest distributed computing attachment: Einstein@Home. Yes, Virginia, it is like the much-publicized SETI@Home ... but without all the aliens.

Now, I don't know who's an armchair physicist and who's still a smidge confused about that whole "gravity thing," but here's the nut graf:

There's a theory that gravitational waves (read: ripples in space-time) are set off by big cosmic events, but nobody's detected them yet. So via DC, researchers are studying spinning pulsars for signs of gravitational waves.

... And if that doesn't mean a thing to you, look at the nifty screensaver that comes with it. Isn't that pretty? ::grins::

In other news, while I was on the hunt for news-related puns today (who signed me up for that?), I came across a list of bugs with interesting scientific names. I looked a few of these up on other sites and confirmed they were real. Scroll down to "'Strange' Names" for the eyebrow-raisers, like the scarab named Enema Pan, and the beetles named Ytu Brutus and Colon Rectum.

I love of scientists with a sense of humor. That's why I married one.