Transformers -The Movie & Evolution of Machine Intelligence

For many, 2007 was the year that big movies stopped happening. Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Star Trek and the like had stopped or finished their runs. There was supposed to be a lull.

Thankfully, director Michael Bay decided not to listen to what the ‘populous’ was saying, and has created what is looking to be one of the greatest geek movies of all time. To be released this June, Transformers has been gaining momentum week after week, as new trailers (see below) and images are released over the internet, and fan hype continually stoked. It stars Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky, who discovers the map to the Allspark: the source of life for which the heroic Autobots and evil Decepticons wage their war.

So, with the intensity at its height, and the movie just around the corner, we thought that we would take a bit of a deeper look at the movie. To be specific, the science behind the fiction.

Discovery of "Super-Earth" & the European Southern Observatory

There is still much to learn about the possibility of life on new "Super-Earth" planet, 581 c, discovered by the European Southern Observatory's telescope at La Silla, Chile, a mountain bordering the southern extremity of the Atacama desert, isolated and remote from any artificial light and dust sources (astronomy's worst enemies).

The La Silla telescope, which Swiss scientist Michel Mayor, who heads the European team in Geneva that announced the discovery of 581c, helped design, has a special instrument that splits light to find wobbles in different wave lengths, revealing the possible existence of other worlds.

Bookies Slash Odds on Discovering

British bookies William Hill cut the odds on proving the existence of from 1,000-1 to 100-1 after astronomers reported they they had found a "super-Earth" more than 20 light years away, the most promising world found so far in the search for extra-terrestrial life.

For William Hill to pay out on an aliens bet, the Prime Minister has to confirm officially the existence of intelligent within a year of the bet being placed.