Ready for cognitive overload?
- Faint writing found on the Shroud of Turin is typical of the Middle East in the first century.
- Sky detectives: the forensic astronomers who are seeking clues to historical events embedded in artworks and literature.
- New research sheds light on large-animal extinction. More.
- Spears didn’t wipe out mammoths: Giant ice-age mammals faced extinction 2,000 years before deadly speartips were invented.
- Valley in Jordan inhabited and irrigated for 13,000 years.
- How humanlike was Ardi? A second look at the 4.4-million-year-old primate that sparked debate about upright walking and what it means to be in the human tribe.
- A treasure trove of Tibetan art and manuscripts uncovered in ‘sky high’ Himalayan caves could be linked to the storybook paradise of Shangri-La.
- Lava cave minerals are actually microbial waste that could offer clues in the search for extraterrestrial life. Photos.
- Photo gallery: Spacewalkers at work on the ISS.
- The beleaguered Hayabusa asteroid probe is back on track to return to Earth after ground controllers cobbled together a working engine from two dead ones.
- Solar winds are triggered by magnetic fields.
- Multi-trillion-watt laser at the University of Rochester has simulated a stellar jet — an outpouring of matter from a fledgling star — with unprecedented realism.
- Aquatic creatures mix ocean water.
- More than 17,000 new species found living in eternal darkness of deep ocean. More. A few nice photos.
- Lure of the deep is irresistible to scientists.
- Sushi is often not what you think.
- Blood and guts: On the brink of a revolution.
- Addition of single bacterial gene into yeast achieves dramatic improvements in bioethanol production from agricultural waste — more ethanol, less acetate, and elimination of the major by-product glycerol.
- In recent years, scientists have decoded the DNA of humans and a menagerie of creatures, but none with genes as complex as a stalk of corn, the latest genome to be unraveled.
- Preliminary analysis of satellite data shows that, for the last three years, the ‘stable’ East Antarctic ice sheet has been losing 57 billion tonnes of ice per year, which is more ice than it is gaining.
- Sea levels could rise by up to 20ft (6m) if the world fails to get CO2 pollution under control, according to the latest study in the Antarctic.
- Carbon emissions from fossil fuels rise to an all-time high — up 2 percent in 2008 despite economic downturn, and up 40 percent from 1990 to 2008.
- Ocean’s ability to mop up CO2 is declining.
- Ocean acidity threatens fish: Carbon content of oceans leaves fish unable to ‘smell danger’.
- Wildfires sweep across eastern Australia: Worse is yet to come as record temperatures, bone-dry bushland, high winds and lightning strikes combine to create the greatest bushfire threat in 100 years.
- Kidney stones, malaria, Lyme disease, depression and respiratory illness all may increase with global warming, researchers at Harvard Medical School say.
- Using stinging tentacles and wide mouths, large coral polyps in the Red Sea have, for the first time, been discovered eating jellyfish nearly as big as they are.
- Economists put a price tag on the benefits of coral reefs.
- The hidden costs of fossil fuels – and biofuels, too.
- Climate sceptics claim leaked emails are evidence of collusion among scientists. More.
- Climategate: the final nail in the coffin of ‘Anthropogenic Global Warming’?
- A leading climate scientist: Leak of climate e-mails is appalling.
- There was no evidence of conspiracy among climate scientists in the leaked emails, but the University of East Anglia’s response has been pathetic — like responding to someone calling you a bastard by showing them your birth certificate.
- Why media tell the climate story poorly.
- Cigarettes are chock full of bacteria, including many known to cause disease in humans.
- Cigarette butts found to be toxic to fish. According to one estimate, some 4.5 trillion filters from spent smokes make their way into the environment every year.
- Mac user claims Apple voided her warranty and refused to repair her computer because it was contaminated with cigarette smoke.
- Normal bacteria living on skin surface prevent excessive inflammation after injury.
- Psychological therapy 32 times more cost effective at increasing happiness than simply obtaining more money.
- Tree-eating bugs threaten Monarch butterflies in Mexico.
- The koala wars.
- Oz farmer’s lucky escape after savage kangaroo held him under water and tried to disembowel him.
- Shockwaves could replace viagra as treatment for erectile dysfunction.
- Female viagra accidently discovered.
- Scientists create the world’s cleverest rat, called Hobbie-J, by modifying a single gene in a technique they believe could also boost human brainpower.
- Pope John Paul II regularly whipped himself in remorse for his sins, ala the Opus Dei monk in The Da Vinci Code.
- Sister of UN ‘suicide’ scientist who died in mysterious fall rescues potential evidence from destruction by police.
- Fat-stealing entities of Peru.
- Psychic claims that Britain’s biggest police forces have asked him to help solve cases by contacting murder victims ‘on the other side’.
- UFO’s? Texas man says he’s got recorded proof.
- Britain’s new internet law — as bad as everyone’s been saying, and worse. Much, much worse.
- ‘Star Trek Online’ offers free-to-play open beta trail period.
Quote of the Day:
Concern for man and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.
Albert Einstein
