Gizmorama - September 10, 2014

Good Morning,

Would you like to discover the possible identity of Jack the Ripper? All thanks to DNA testing. SCIENCE!

Learn about this and more interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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*-- Jack the Ripper possibly identified as Aaron Kosminski through DNA tests --*
LONDON (UPI) - Jack the Ripper's identity may finally no longer be a mystery after a DNA analysis of a shawl allegedly worn by one of the notorious killer's victims.

Businessman and author Russell Edwards told Britain's The Daily Mail, that he had forensic testing conducted on a shawl stained with blood and semen he bought at auction.

Edwards said the results of testing of the substances found on the shawl determined Jack the Ripper was actually Aaron Kosminski, a Polish Jew living in London at the time of the murders in 1888, near where at least one of the victims was found.

Samples from the shawl revealed DNA for two different people, both of which were matches to descendants of the victim who owned the shawl - Catherine Eddowes - and Kosminski.

Edwards admitted when he bought the shawl at auction in 2007, a provenance was lacking, but he received a letter from the seller saying her ancestor was a police officer at the scene of Eddowes' murder and took the item.

Kosminski was a hairdresser thought to be seriously mentally ill and a misogynist. He was identified by a witness as the suspect in one of the five murders tied to Jack the Ripper, but police didn't have enough evidence to convict him.

He was committed to a mental institution for the rest of his life after his arrest for connection to one of the murders.


*-- God Particle could destroy universe, according to Hawking --*
(UPI) In the preface of an upcoming book, Starmus, Stephen Hawking claims the Higgs Boson particle, a.k.a. the "God particle," could destroy the universe.

As first discovered by the Sunday Times of the United Kingdom, Hawking claims if enough energy is directed at the particle, it could cause space and time to completely collapse. He also claims that we "wouldn't see it coming."

The Higgs Boson particle is said to be the particle that gives matter its mass. "The Higgs potential has the worrisome feature that it might become metastable at energies above 100bn gigaelectronvolts (GeV)," Hawking writes. He claims that under such conditions, it is theoretically possible the particle would cause an unstoppable vacuum to form that would expand at the speed of light.

The likelihood of such an event occurring is apparently very low. According to Hawking, "A particle accelerator that reaches 100bn GeV would be larger than Earth, and is unlikely to be funded in the present economic climate." The end of days scenario is theoretical, but he said he still believes it is possible.

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