Press Releases
February 2009
25 February 2009 - ESO
Into the Eye of the Helix
A deep new image of the magnificent Helix planetary nebula has been obtained using the Wide Field Imager at ESO's La Silla Observatory. The image shows a rich background of distant galaxies, usually not seen in other images of this object.
24 February 2009 - EMBL
Picture Release
The two images of Medaka juveniles, a full body shot and a head close-up, were taken at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory [EMBL], with a newly developed microscope called Digital Scanned Laser Light Sheet Fluorescence Microscope.
18 February 2009 - ESO
Hundred metre virtual telescope captures unique detailed colour image
A team of French astronomers has captured one of the sharpest colour images ever made. They observed the star T Leporis, which appears, on the sky, as small as a two-storey house on the Moon. The image was taken with ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), emulating a virtual telescope about 100 metres across and reveals a spherical molecular shell around an aged star.
12 February 2009 - CERN
Hollywood comes to CERN
CERN today hosted a visit from actors Tom Hanks and Ayelet Zurer and director Ron Howard as they unveiled exclusively some select footage from their new film adaptation of Dan Brown's novel Angels & Demons, set for worldwide release by Sony Pictures on 15 May 2009.
12 February 2009 - ESO
Strong Winds over the Keel
The latest ESO image reveals amazing detail in the intricate structures of one of the largest and brightest nebulae in the sky, the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372), where strong winds and powerful radiation from an armada of massive stars are creating havoc in the large cloud of dust and gas from which the stars were born.
9 February 2009 - CERN
CERN management confirms new LHC restart schedule
CERN management today confirmed the restart schedule for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) resulting from the recommendations from last week's Chamonix workshop. The new schedule foresees first beams in the LHC at the end of September this year, with collisions following in late October.
6 February 2009 - CERN
CERN to set goals for first LHC physics
At the conclusion of a workshop held in Chamonix this week, recommendations have been made to the CERN management for the restart schedule of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
4 February 2009 - EMBL
New findings reveal how influenza virus hijacks human cells
Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the joint Unit of Virus Host-Cell Interaction (UVHCI] of EMBL, the University Joseph Fourier (UJF) and the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Grenoble, France, have now precisely defined an important drug target in influenza.
4 February 2009 - ESRF
The deadly knife of the influenza virus made visible
To replicate itself, the influenza virus takes over control of several key processes in the human cells and exactly how this is done is a long-standing subject of scientific enquiry. In this week's Nature, a high-resolution image of a part of the virus shows how the virus hijacks the cell's RNA molecules for its own purposes, opening a new approach to drugs which inhibit this action.
4 February 2009 - ESO
Powerful New Technique to Measure Asteroids' Sizes and Shapes
A team of French and Italian astronomers have devised a new method for measuring the size and shape of asteroids that are too small or too far away for traditional techniques, increasing the number of asteroids that can be measured by a factor of several hundred. This method takes advantage of the unique capabilities of ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI).