The star known as Gliese 581 is utterly unremarkable in just about every way you can imagine. It's a red dwarf, the most common type of star in the Milky Way, weighing in at about a third of the mass of the sun. At 20 light years or so away, it's relatively nearby, but not close enough to set any records . You can't even see it without a telescope, so while it lies in the direction ...

As campaigning was closing for the German presidential election Sunday, attention was already turning to what coalition will rule the country. Few doubt that Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, CDU, will win most votes. So, will Merkel continue the current center right-center left 'grand coalition' with the Social Democrats or will the votes suffice for a coalition with the business liberal but centrist Liberal Democrats or the FDP, a constellation Germans refer to as 'Black-Yellow.' At a press conference ostensibly ...