News Briefs 15-06-2009

Late news? That's what happens when you unintentionally spend 15 hours curing a sleep debt.

• Radical new research indicates Earth's magnetic field is caused by ocean currents, rather than molten metals at its core.
• Is there a 'no life on Mars' conspiracy?
• John Paul's letters to a soulmate: A Vatican mystery even Dan Browne would be hard-pressed to top.
• Miniature bacteria that have been buried beneath Greenland ice for at least 120,000 years are so small they can pass through conventional medical filters used for sterilisation.
• Greenland ice sheet is melting faster than expected, and is a larger contributor to sea-level rise than previously thought.
• Scientists rubbish logging industry claims: Cutting down the rainforest actually leads to damaging 'boom and bust' economy in the Amazon.
• Great land giveaway could be a disaster for the Amazon.
• Lazarus Syndrome: Man comes back to life 30 minutes after dying.
• The 'history of conflict' between science and religion is a myth. Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion is available at Amazon US & UK.
• The Fusion of God and Green: Why Christian eco evangelist Craig Sorley is teaching farmers to save Kenya's environment.
• China's streets are swarming with 100,000,000 cheap, green electric bikes.
• Genetic region for animal tameness discovered.
• Messages, memory, maybe even intelligence — botanists wrangle over how far plants can go.
• Geological mystery: Banded iron formations contain about 20 times as much oxygen as today’s atmosphere, yet some of these deposits accumulated long before Earth’s atmosphere became thoroughly oxygenated.
• Never-published WHO study which described mild cocaine use in positive tones prompted several blown fuses amongst US politicians.
• Hawass says he'll prove that Nefertiti was stolen by the Germans. Okay, so that's one thing Zahi doesn't agree with old-time Germany about.
• New dig could reveal 5,000 more terracotta warriors.
• Teotihuacan - in 3D.
• British-Greek dispute over Elgin Marbles hots up.
• Oldest art in Americas found on mammoth bone?
• Researchers unveil earliest known sound recordings - made 20 years before Edison invented the phonograph.
• Apollo 11 meets astrology.
• Space 'firefly' resembles no known object. As long as its not Reavers.
• Astronomers puzzled by shrinking Betelgeuse.
• Falling meteorite barely grazes schoolboy, leaves smoking, foot-wide hole in the pavement.
• US military: Satellite data on incoming space rocks is now classified.
• The search for ET just got easier.
• Impossibility is relative (22min audio): Michio Kaku says science fiction of Star Trek and Star Wars (fun YouTube) is closer to reality than we thought.
• Passing the Phaser: 10 Tips for Turning Your Kids Into Trekkies. Add your own tips in the comments.
• Speaking of kids, more sleep protects teens from depression and suicidal thoughts. An earlier bedtime improves grades, and more sleep improves athletic performance and mood.
• Teen obesity is linked to reduced sleep caused by technology use and caffeine.
• Sleep restriction results in weight gain despite decreases in appetite and food consumption. Too much or too little sleep also results in weight gain, and increases the risk of diabetes.
• Does sleep leave you tired? Zeo, a new home-use device that monitors sleep stages all through the night, may help.
• Bisphenol A exposure causes abnormal heart activity in female rats and mice, and in pregnant mice, permanently changes the DNA of offspring.
• Human exposure to BPA much greater than previously thought.
• How the kidney toxin melamine may be getting into our food supply: The insecticide cyromazine is used on food crops and animal forage - and melamine is one of its breakdown products.
• Food, Inc: How America's edibles changed as the nation journeyed from agrarian to industrialized.
• Hey, guys: Light therapy - or just going outside for 30 minutes in the morning - improves your sexual functioning.
• Grey hair really is caused by stress.
• Large bear population - now over 350,000 in US mainland - is causing problems.
• Half of Brits don't know their heart from their elbow.
• The suicides happen off camera: When reality tv becomes too brutally real for contestants.
• We've always abused the poor and unloved. Will we ever find a cure?

Thanks, Greg.

Quote of the Day:

Without basketry there would be no civilisations. You can’t bring thousands of people together unless you can supply them, you can’t bring in supplies to feed populations without containers. In the early days of civilisations these containers were basketry.

We may think of baskets as humble, but other people and cultures don’t. They have been used for storage, for important religious and ceremonial processes, even for bodies in the form of coffins.

Sandy Heslop, School of World Art and Museology at UEA, in Basket Weaing May Have Taught Humans to Count.