Fermi detection of a luminous γ-ray pulsar in a globular cluster

We report on the Fermi Large Area Telescope's detection of γ-ray (>100 mega-electron volts) pulsations from pulsar J1823-3021A in the globular cluster NGC 6624 with high significance (~7 σ). Its γ-ray luminosity, L(γ) = (8.4 ± 1.6) × 10(34) ergs per second, is the highest observed for any millisecond pulsar (MSP) to date, and it accounts for most of the cluster emission. The nondetection of the cluster in the off-pulse phase implies that it contains <32 γ-ray MSPs, not ~100 as previously estimated. The γ-ray luminosity indicates that the unusually large rate of change of its period is caused by its intrinsic spin-down. This implies that J1823-3021A has the largest magnetic field and is the youngest MSP ever detected and that such anomalous objects might be forming at rates comparable to those of the more normal MSPs.     

In the long run,will we be fed?

This Symposium provides an important opportunity to reflect on the current state of scholarship positioning alternative foods against mainstream agri-food systems. Symposia of this kind have a long tradition as marking particular turning points in agrifood debates. This collection provides an opportunity to examine the current positioning of scholarship around the theoretical and methodological fracture line between successor theories to classical political economy and more post-structuralist approaches to alternative economic activities around food and agriculture. In the current collection, despite clear evidence of theoretical positioning around the structural: post-structural divide, I argue that both aspects of agri-food theorizing share similar political intent and are positioned within the same wider political project of agrifood critique. Therefore, despite theoretical fracture, there is a unity of political intention that continues to bind together this particular field of research and practice.     

Have you seen who's going to be at the new FIAAP/GRAPAS/Victam shows in Cologne?

<正>Three related shows will open for the very first time at the prestigious Koelnmesse (the Cologne Exhibition Centre)in Cologne,Germany from 3-5 May 2011.     

When is an island community in equilibrium?

To determine whether the number of species in a biota is in equilibrium requires a colonization model. In a simple Markov model, each species' extinction and immigration probabilities are estimated independently from available data. For one inland and two island avifaunas, a simulation with these probabilities shows that the trajectories of species richness through time do not manifest the regulatory tendencies expected if species interactions cause species richness to be continuously redressed toward an equilibrium.