Best of Last Week – Gravitational wave rumors, Internet cutting cord with US gov and recovering memory from low fat diet

(ScienceX)—It was a very good week for physics as gravitational wave rumors rippled through the science world—all based on a Tweet from cosmologist Lawrence Krauss of Arizona State University. He made mention in a positive way, of a previous rumor regarding work being done by a team with the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory. Also, researchers with Purdue University and MIT announced that they had come up with a way to show how photonics could reshape the spectrum of light, and rehabilitate Edison's light bulb along the way. And another trio of researchers in China demonstrated how a one-way light beam could be steered in different directions.

In space news, a team working in the U.S. described a new theory of secondary inflation that expands options for avoiding an excess of dark matter. A team studying data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array reported that they had found evidence of extreme turbulence roiling the 'most luminous galaxy' in the universe—perhaps enough to cause it to jettison gases that would otherwise lead to star formation. And an international team of space scientists announced that they had found water ice on the surface of comet 67P—the first time it has been documented on a comet.

In other news, the head of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers announced that the Internet is set to cut the cord with the U.S. government this year—hopefully ensuring an independent web for the future. A team or researchers working at Washington University reported that they had found evidence that poverty can be linked to childhood depression and changes in brain connectivity. And demographers with Texas A&M University reported that more people in Europe are dying than are being born, signaling changing times ahead for that part of the world.

And finally, if you are one of the people who has experienced memory problems after living on a high-fat diet for a stretch of time, you may not have to worry about it coming back—a team at UT Dallas found that loss of memory after a high-fat diet is recoverable over a long period of time, at least in rats.

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