Sun's fractal surprise could help fusion on Earth - space - 01 May 2014 - New Scientist

Sun's fractal surprise could help fusion on Earth - space - 01 May 2014 - New Scientist: STEREO revealed that when the movement of the wind's particles is perpendicular to the sun's magnetic field, they resemble a fluid, with sections that are smooth, interrupted by bursts of violence...

But when the particles move in parallel with the field lines, they behave very differently, with the turbulence evenly spread, like crinkly mountains that extend as far as the eye can see...

One problem with optimising their energy output is deducing what is going on inside them – inserting a probe isn't an option as it would melt...

By adding the fractal behaviour to their plasma models, fusion scientists may be able to control turbulence, which can cause plasma to escape the magnetic field containing it in the reactor...

Computer simulation shows the sun's "heartbeat" is magnetic

Computer simulation shows the sun's "heartbeat" is magnetic: They ran their simulation on University of Montreal supercomputers which are connected to a larger network across the city. In so doing, they observed that though the sun as a whole experiences an 11 year cycle of solar polar reversals (as noted here on Earth by the periodic nature of observable sun spot activity), zonal magnetic field bands undergo a polarity reversal on average every 40 years.

'Astronomical Unit,' or Earth-Sun Distance, Gets an Overhaul

'Astronomical Unit,' or Earth-Sun Distance, Gets an Overhaul: The new standard... is now 149,597,870,700 meters...

Most recently, the au was defined as...: “the radius of an unperturbed circular Newtonian orbit about the Sun of a particle having infinitesimal mass, moving with a mean motion of 0.01720209895 radians per day...

From the Annals of the Impossible (Experimental Physics) | Wavewatching

From the Annals of the Impossible (Experimental Physics) | Wavewatching: What you don't expect are variations that follow a discernible pattern in the decay rate of a radioactive element, nor any correlation with outside events. But this is exactly what Jere H. Jenkins et al. found...

And now this surprising result of the sun's influence has been corroborated.
The latest research was a collaboration of Stanford and Purdue University with the Geological Survey of Israel, rather reputable research power-houses that make these results difficult to dismiss...

Make: Online | Solar Sinter Project: 3D Printing with Sunlight and Sand

Make: Online | Solar Sinter Project: 3D Printing with Sunlight and Sand: In a world increasingly concerned with questions of energy production and raw material shortages, this project explores the potential of desert manufacturing, where energy and material occur in abundance. In this experiment sunlight and sand are used as raw energy and material to produce glass objects using a 3D printing process, that combines natural energy and material with high-tech production technology.

If A Primordial Black Hole Hits The Sun...� - Technology Review

If A Primordial Black Hole Hits The Sun...� - Technology Review: The likelihood is that a primordial black hole with mass of an asteroid or comet (about 10^21 g) would pass straight through the Sun, generating a small puff of X-rays in the process. Such a burst would be less even than the background rate of X-rays, so it would be impossible for astronomers to see.

Instead, Kesden and Hanasoge say that the collision would generate supersonic turbulence that would set the Sun ringing like a bell. Today, they calculate what these oscillations would look like.

Radioactive decay rates vary with the sun's rotation: research

Radioactive decay rates vary with the sun's rotation: "The fluctuations we're seeing are fractions of a percent and are not likely to radically alter any major anthropological findings," Fischbach said. "One of our next steps is to look into the isotopes used medically to see if there are any variations that would lead to overdosing or underdosing in radiation treatments, but there is no cause for alarm at this point. What is key here is that what was thought to be a constant actually varies and we've discovered a periodic oscillation where there shouldn't be one."

Jenkins and Fischbach suggest that the changes in the decay rates are due to interactions with solar neutrinos, nearly weightless particles created by nuclear reactions within the sun's core that travel almost at the speed of light.