Four galaxies merge

Scientists just happened to spot an unusual happening with NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. It’s five billion light-years away. When complete, the merger will make one of the biggest galaxies in the universe.

Nestle is still endangering babies

For years, Nestlé has promoted the use of formula in poor countries – where families can not afford to keep buying it, where bottles won’t be sterilized, where it won’t be made with clean water. In those conditions, babies are much safer drinking breast milk. But once a baby has been drinking formula for a while, breasts are running dry and mothers lose confidence. They feed diluted formula. Babies don’t get enough food, or they do get gastroenteritis. Thousands of babies die of it.

Maybe Nestlé has stopped dressing its sales people as nurses in these countries. But it is still trying to make those sales.

Now Nestlé is saying that it doesn’t believe this is promoting their products. Then why are they doing it?

A Guardian investigation in Bangladesh found widespread use of “prescription pads”, where Nestlé reps give health workers tear-off pads, with pictures of their products, for them to pass on to mothers. Nestlé spokesman Robin Tickle said he did not believe the pads equated to promotion of the company’s formula milks. The device was “a safety measure”, to help mothers to be sue the milk they were buying was the right kind for their baby.

Phoenix Mars Lander

The Phoenix Mars Lander is on its way to Mars. The bright spots of the space exploration program are small, solar-powered, unmanned landers and unmanned orbiting telescopes. That should tell us where to put our money.

The Phoenix will land near the north pole of Mars and search under the surface for traces of water or organic chemicals.

Hoof-and-mouth disease strikes England again

A new outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease in England is the same strain as that used in a nearby laboratory. Britain is trying to react more quickly this time.

(Image is from here.)

There are seven strains of the virus. Immunity to one does not give immunity to the others, and at least two strains are quite variable. There are vaccines made from viral protein, which can not cause the disease. However, immunity lasts only a few months to a few years.