Items of Interest

-- If you've been looking for the right epithet and find yourself saying, "Frak", then thank Glen A. Larson "who first used the faux curse word "frak" in the original "Battlestar Galactica." The word was mostly overlooked back in the '70s series but is working its way into popular vocabulary as SciFi's modern update winds down production." There's more on the history of frak from CNN and how it spread if you're curious.

-- Do black holes and the event horizon pique your interest even a little? Then you'll want to read about the Closest Look Ever At Edge Of A Black Hole from ScienceDaily.

-- Speaking of space and telescopes, here's an update on the race to save the Hubble telescope from Discover Magazine.

-- More from ScienceDaily. Like sports? Participate in them or even just watch them a lot? Believe it or not, you're helping your brain according to one study just released by the University of Chicago.

The research was conducted on hockey players, fans, and people who'd never seen or played the game. It shows, for the first time, that a region of the brain usually associated with planning and controlling actions is activated when players and fans listen to conversations about their sport. The brain boost helps athletes and fans understanding of information about their sport, even though at the time when people are listening to this sport language they have no intention to act. The study shows that the brain may be more flexible in adulthood than previously thought.

-- Opposable thumbs and "junk" DNA -- it's amazing what they can figure out from the study of human DNA and comparison with the DNA of other animals. In this case, what was termed "junk" DNA seems to have some very interesting information buried in it including the signal that tells other genes when to develop opposable thumbs during the growth of embryos.