Some things I cannot change

'Clearest' images taken of space
By Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent, BBC News

A team of astronomers from the US and the UK has obtained some of the clearest pictures of space ever taken.

They were acquired using a new "adaptive optics" system which sharpens pictures taken from the Mount Palomar Observatory in California.

The images are twice as sharp as those from Hubble Space Telescope.

The new system, dubbed "Lucky", is the result of work by a team from Cambridge University and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

This is really kind of awesome. The difference in picture quality is amazing. I don't really understand this stuff, but it does seem like they might be able to get loads of much more in detail pictures and discover all sorts of cool things about space.

Also, the scientist who invented the new system is called Dr Mackay. Oh, I do amuse myself. We also had a call earlier from a "J Sheppard" wanting to arrange an interview. That, combined with this, has really made my day ;) ETA: And now I'm adding a Dr Carter to our database. Oh really, this is too much!! ;)

I may be misunderstanding, because me and science and statistics have never been on very close terms, but as far as I can tell, this story, about how1 in 25 fathers may be unknowingly raising another man's child, is based on data gathered from people who had paternity tests done, right? So for a fair number of them, there were doubts in the first place, or they wouldn't have been testing. And .. no one thought that perhaps, just perhaps, that might skew the results a tiny bit?

ETA: Also, for those who are interested - the pilot of Lost got over 6 million viewers last night. Rock on.