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By Richard Panek The views expressed are his own. For the first time in history our species has begun to answer some of the eternal questions about the universe: Where did it come from? Where is it going? We’re able to do so in part because of the discovery that is being recognized by this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics. Before Galileo published the first discoveries he made with a primitive telescope, in 1610, cosmology—the study of the structure and evolution of the universe—was equal parts speculation and superstition. Even the subsequent, centuries-long discoveries of new planets, new moons, new stars, and new galaxies didn’t address the evolution of the universe. Not until Edwin Hubble’s 1929 discovery that, on a cosmic scale, galaxies appear to be receding from one another, carried along by the expansion of space itself, did the universe begin to acquire a narrative—a story that changes over time. Even then theorists split into two camps: those who posited a universe that emerged in a “big bang,” and those who preferred a universe poised in a “steady state” through the continuous creation of matter. And there the theoretical divide, as theoretical divides must do in the absence of evidence, rested. That evidence arrived in 1964, with the discovery of a remnant radiation that matched a prediction of the Big Bang theory. The answer to the question of where the universe had come from was beginning to find its answer—and cosmology was beginning its passage from metaphysics to physics, from speculation to science. And what of the fate of the universe? Throughout the 1990s, two international teams of scientists raced each other to find out the answer. They reasoned that if the universe is expanding, and all the matter in the universe is attracting all the other matter in the universe through gravity, then the cumulative gravitational drag of all that matter on all that other matter would be slowing the expansion. The question was, How much? So much that the universe will eventually stretch as far as it can go, reverse direction, and collapse back on itself? Or so little that the universe will keep cruising, more and more slowly, until it reaches a virtual standstill? By studying a form of exploding star called a Type Ia supernova at distances as much as half the way back to the beginning of the universe, however, these rival teams found that the expansion is behaving in a way they hadn’t anticipated. It’s speeding up. The leaders of the two teams, Saul Perlmutter and Brian Schmidt, and the lead author of the Schmidt team’s discovery paper, Adam Riess, share this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics for that counterintuitive conclusion, which the two teams reached independently in 1998. But knowing that something is accelerating the expansion of the universe doesn’t tell us what that “something” is. What component of the universe could possibly be capable of overpowering the effects of gravity on a cosmic scale? Until they can find out, scientists have given it a placeholder name, “dark energy.” That term in turn mimics “dark matter,” a discovery that entered mainstream astronomy in the 1970s. Despite these shrugging monikers, dark matter and dark energy aren’t the speculative indulgences of cosmologists in ivory towers. The relic radiation from the Big Bang—technically, the cosmic microwave background—is in effect a baby picture of the universe. Everything the universe will evolve into is right there, in the contours and temperature variations of that radiation. Examine that radiation on a fine enough scale and you’ll see what the universe is made of, which is exactly what scientists have repeatedly done over the past decade, until they have refined the proportions with mind-bending precision: 72.8 percent dark energy and 22.7 percent dark matter, leaving only 4.5 percent the kind of stuff we’d always assumed was the universe in its entirety—stars, planets, galaxies, you, me. The news that for thousands of years astronomy and physics have been missing most of the universe, however, doesn’t disappoint astronomers and physicists. As Perlmutter once told me, “I have the impression that most people don’t realize that what got physicists into physics usually is not the desire to understand what we already know but the desire to catch the universe in the act of doing really bizarre things.” And for a physicist, it doesn’t get much more bizarre than dark energy. To solve the mystery of what nearly the entire universe is made of will likely require a recalibration of Newton and Einstein, if not the long-awaited nuptials of general relativity and quantum mechanics. The problem of dark energy, a theorist once said to me, “is the most profound in all of science.” The implications for philosophy, however, are no less profound. The discovery of dark energy gives us a strong clue as to what the fate of the universe will be—eternal expansion. But it also forces us to rethink what we mean by the word “universe”—a concept we last had to rethink on such a fundamental level back when Galileo walked into his garden in Padua and pointed a “tube of long seeing” at the night sky. It’s 1610 all over again.

The decision was made on the basis of a medical examination, carried out following a surprise visit to the elderly billionaire's home in June, which concluded she was suffering from a form of dementia.Liliane Bettencourt's wealth and income, including her 30 percent stake in global cosmetics company L'Oreal -- will now be managed by her daughter Francoise Meyers-Bettencourt and her children. Jean-Victor Meyers, Bettencourt's grandson, will be responsible for her health and physical well-being."It is a decision that is deeply disappointing that I will find hard to inform Mrs Bettencourt about," the heiress's lawyer said, adding he planned to lodge an appeal.The Bettencourt affair ballooned into a political scandal after allegations that then budget minister and former party treasurer Eric Woerth obtained illegal financing for the ruling UMP party from the heiress.Woerth left the government at the end of last year after months of fending off accusations of influence peddling. He strongly denied any wrong doing.The scandal resurfaced Monday when the head of France's intelligence services, Bernard Squarcini, was placed under investigation for allegedly tapping the phones of a Le Monde journalist who wrote an article in 2010 questioning Woerth and his involvement in the Bettencourt affair.French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office in late August denied allegations published in a national newspaper he was handed cash by Bettencourt for his 2007 election campaign.Sarkozy, whose popularity is mired near record lows, faces an uphill battle for re-election in April.FRANCE'S RICHEST WOMANWith a fortune estimated at 17 billion euros ($23.6 billion), Liliane Bettencourt is the wealthiest woman in France and the 15th richest person in the world, according to the Forbes rich list.Francoise Meyers-Bettencourt and her children welcomed Monday's ruling, saying they had always acted to protect Bettencourt's interests and were "immensely relieved" the court had finally agreed to their demands.They also said the family holding company Tethys would continue to manage the family's voting rights in L'Oreal. Separately, Swiss food group Nestle said the court decision would in no way affect a shareholder agreement between the two groups.Nestle, which owns 31 percent of L'Oreal, struck a deal with the Bettencourts in 2004, giving each party first refusal for their L'Oreal shares for 10 years.Moreover, neither party can increase its L'Oreal stake during Liliane Bettencourt's lifetime and for six months after her death, a spokesperson for Nestle said in a statement.In December, Bettencourt declared a truce with her daughter after Meyers-Bettencourt withdrew her request to have her mother placed under the supervision of a guardian, and the two made a show of unity.However, the spat reignited over the summer when Bettencourt said her daughter needed to seek psychological help. Doctors had advised appointing a guardian in June, but that request was dismissed on a technicality after an appeals court said the request was invalid.Le Monde said Monday the medical examination in June found Bettencourt was unable to answer various test questions, adding that she was suffering from anosognosia, a condition where a person is unaware of his or her disability.In an interview in Journal du Dimanche Sunday, the wealthy heiress showed fighting spirit, threatening to leave the country if she were placed under guardianship.The Bettencourt affair initially centred on Francois-Marie Banier, a celebrity photographer whom Meyers-Bettencourt accused of swindling her mother to the tune of up to a billion euros.Although charges against Banier have been dropped, investigations are still ongoing into the illegal funding claims.

In a Special Edition letter posted on PIMCO's website, Gross, who runs the $242 billion PIMCO Total Return portfolio, wrote that he underestimated the contagion effect from the Europe debt crisis and the U.S. debt ceiling debacle."As Europe's crisis and the U.S. debt ceiling debacle turned developed economies toward a potential recession, the Total Return Fund had too little risk off and too much risk on," said Gross, who also shares the title of co-chief investment officer at Pacific Investment Management Co. with Mohamed El-Erian.Gross, known as the "bond king", came under heavy criticism earlier this year when he bet heavily against U.S. Treasuries which have turned out to be one of the biggest outperformers of 2011.His fund's poor performance led Gross to simply call his open letter to investors, "Mea Culpa."It is up only 1.06 percent year to date versus the benchmark BarCap U.S. Aggregate Index which is up 3.99 percent.Gross, who helps manage more than $1.2 trillion at PIMCO, said late Friday the Total Return fund had positions in German bonds and Canadian Treasuries to counter the U.S. underweight position, "but not enough."He added that minor percentages of emerging market corporate and sovereign debt, effectively denominated in their local non-dollar currencies, did not perform well either."The simple fact is that the portfolio at midyear was positioned for what we call a "New Normal" developed world economy - 2.0 percent real growth and 2 percent inflation," Gross said.That's all changed, of course. Gross said PIMCO's internal growth forecast for developed economies "is now zero percent over the coming several quarters and the portfolio more accurately reflects this posture."Last week, Reuters reported that Gross ramped up buying of mortgage-backed securities in September, albeit by using leverage, on the likelihood the Federal Reserve's reinvestment program in those securities will boost prices significantly.Gross increased mortgage debt to 38 percent of assets in September, from 32 percent in August, as the U.S. central bank announced last month that it "will now reinvest principal payments from its holdings of agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities in agency mortgage-backed securities."His move into mortgage-backed securities also comes as the PIMCO Total Return fund's cash equivalents and money-market securities fell to negative 19 percent September, from negative 9.0 percent in August.In having a so-called negative position in cash equivalents and money-market securities, it is an indication of using derivatives and short-term securities as collateral in order to boost the fund's buying power with leverage.Gross' move to seek more yield by putting more money into mortgage bonds is yet another bold bet which many will be watching after Gross's call on Treasuries cost his fund's performance. In doing so, he is effectively extending the average duration of his fund's investments, making them potentially more exposed to a rise interest rates.Clearly, Gross is betting interest rates will remain low for some time as the world economy continues to struggle.In his "mea culpa" letter, Gross resorted to baseball analogies and metaphors. He closed his letter by saying: "This is big league ball, where your ticket holders come to the park expecting not a circus-Willie Mays-catch but more wins than losses and a year-end performance that places your bond assets near the top of the standings."He added, "Baseball metaphors aside, we know why PIMCO Total Return is arguably the largest and hopefully the greatest bond fund in the world."

Borrower Export Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM)Issue Amount 125 million Swiss francsMaturity Date March 30, 2015Coupon 2.375 pctIssue price 101.4540Reoffer price 101.004Spread 160 basis pointsUnderlying govt bond Over Mid-swapsPayment Date October 10, 2011Lead Manager(s) UBS & RBSRatings A1 (Moody's)Full fees UndisclosedDenoms (K) 5Governing Law EnglishNotes The issue size will total 375 millionSwiss francs when fungibleISIN CH0125062270Customers can right-click on the code forperformance analysis of this new issueFor ratings information, double click onFor all bonds data, double click onFor Top international bonds newsFor news about this issuer, double click on the issuer RIC,where assigned, and hit the newskey (F9 on Reuters terminals)Data supplied by International Insider.