A new generation of experiments might shore up the cosmic orthodoxy - or blow it out of the water. That unexpected alternative, some people go so far as to say, might be no bad thing at all.

"There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened."

Insane today has announced Plasmatron 1.0.2, their new tilt/survival game for iOS devices. In Plasmatron, you control a little worm in a neon digital evil universe. Your mission is to survive as long as you can, and use the accelerometers of your device to avoid being hit by any of the evil objects that are coming for you while you play. Tilt your movements through an amazing digital universe where for every good action you make for survival, an evil force will try to make you stop.

"A few hundred thousand billion free-floating life-bearing Earth-sized planets may exist in the space between stars in the Milky Way. So argues an international team of scientists led by Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe, Director of the Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology at the University of Buckingham, UK."

UK based Lorisware Software today introduces Solar Balls 1.0, its new gaming title for iOS devices. The Solar Balls are heading to Earth. You must travel the Universe and send them off course to save Earth from being destroyed. Battle through 16 levels and 3 bonus levels to save Earth from the fiery Solar Balls. Suitable for all ages, Solar Balls is an addictive arcade game testing your speed, accuracy, and reaction skills. In this fast paced game you'll need quick fingers if you are to succeed.

One of the most interesting Wikipedia articles I've read. Puts a lot of things into perspective.

Iron-56, the most common isotope of iron, is what all material in the universe "wants" to be. That is, the nuclei of matter is all gradually exhausting its energy, and iron-56 is the form of matter with the lowest energy per nucleon. Eventually, stars will turn into iron—huge balls of iron. Everything will be iron. The good news is that this won't happen for 10^1500 years, a period of time so long that we can't really grasp it. That's a quingentillion years away. For comparison, there are probably no more than 10^81 atoms in the entire universe, so 10^1500 is just a mind-bogglingly long amount of time. The universe right now is just over 10^10 years old, so you can see that it's really just a mewling infant at this point.

The sun contains 99.9 percent of all the matter in our solar system and sheds hot plasma at nearly a million miles an hour. The temperature at its core is a staggering 27 million degrees Fahrenheit. It convulses, it blazes, it sings. You know it as the sun. Scientists know it as one of the most amazing physics laboratories in the universe. Now, with the help of new spacecraft and Earth-based telescopes, scientists are seeing the sun as they never have before and even recreating what happens at its very center in labs here on Earth. Their work will help us understand aspects of the sun that have puzzled scientists for decades. But more critically, it may help us predict and track solar storms that have the power to zap our power grid, shut down telecommunications, and ground global air travel for days, weeks, or even longer. Such storms have happened before—but never in the modern era of satellite communication. "Secrets of the Sun" reveals a bright new dawn in our understanding of our nearest star—one that might help keep our planet from going dark.