NEW YORK – Wednesday,
the Royal Swedish Academy of
Sciences announced that three
scientists would share the 2009
Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their
research on chemical complexes
that translate the information
contained in DNA into functional
protein, complexes called ribosomes.
The three chemists are
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan of
the MRC Laboratory of Molecular
Biology in Cambridge, England,
Thomas A. Steitz of Yale
University and Ada E. Yonath of
the Weizmann Institute of Science
in Rehovot, Israel. Notably, Steitz
is a 1962 graduate of Lawrence
University.
-www.nytimes.com
PASADENA, Calif. – NASA scientists
announced Wednesday that
they have discovered a massive
ring around Saturn that would
take approximately 1 billion
Earths to fill. The nearly invisible
ring gives off thermal heat that
was observed by NASA’s Spitzer
Space Telescope. Scientists speculated
that the ring was made from
the particle aftermath of Saturn’s
moon Phoebe colliding with comets
as her orbit crossed the ring.
-www.cnn.com
WASHINGTON – The National
Organization for Women criticized
David Letterman for promoting an
uncomfortable and hostile environment
for employees of his late
night talk show. Last week on
his show, the funnyman confessed
to sex with unnamed employees
after a CBS producer threatened
to expose about the affairs if
Letterman did not pay him $2
million.
-www.cnn.com
In other news…
