Newsdesk Archive

One decade after a huge milestone in commercial spaceflight, British billionaire Sir Richard Branson thinks his spaceflight company Virgin Galactic's spaceship, is "on the verge" of another breakthrough in the industry.

Observers of Wednesday morning's total lunar eclipse might be able to catch sight of an extremely rare cosmic sight.On Oct. 8, Interested skywatchers should attempt to see the total eclipse of the moon and the rising sun simultaneously. The little-used name for this effect is called a "selenelion," a phenomenon that celestial geometry says cannot happen.

About one fifth of the Earth's atmosphere is oxygen, pumped out by green plants as a result of photosynthesis and used by most living things on the planet to keep our metabolisms running. Scientists have now shown that oxygen can be formed directly from carbon dioxide in the upper atmosphere, changing models of how the atmosphere evolved early in Earth's history.

What makes a great leader? Effectiveness? Experience? Volcanoes? It might seem unlikely, but new research from a team of academics, including Raghavendra Rau, Sir Evelyn de Rothschild Professor of Finance at Cambridge Judge Business School, suggests that experiencing a natural disaster at first hand during your early childhood can have a profound impact on your strategic and tactical decisions in later life.

How closely does the relationship between people and their non-human companions mirror the parent-child relationship? Researchers makes a contribution to answering this complex question by investigating differences in how important brain structures are activated when women view images of their children and of their own dogs.

Olin Feuerbacher took a deep breath and plunged into the warm aquamarine water of a 100,000-gallon concrete and fiberglass tank in the middle of the Mojave Desert.Twenty feet beneath the surface, Feuerbacher inched his way across the bottom, methodically scanning the darkened corners with a flashlight.

Every day we get more proof that wasps are the most terrifying creatures on the planet. Not only do they mind-control caterpillars and inject them with their wasp babies, they also managed to enslave a virus to do their dirty work for them.Just when you get used to wasps, they spring some new diabolical thing on you. When you get accustomed to the fact that they stuff other creatures full of their eggs so that their larvae eat the other creature from the inside out, it is revealed that they also dabbled in mind control.

Penises grown in laboratories could soon be tested on men by scientists developing technology to help people with congenital abnormalities, or who have undergone surgery for aggressive cancer or suffered traumatic injury.Researchers at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, are assessing engineered penises for safety, function and durability.

In August 1964, a very strange yet fascinating document was secretly prepared for senior personnel in the U.S. Army and the Pentagon. Its title was Witchcraft, Sorcery, Magic, and Other Psychological Phenomena and Their Implications on Military and Paramilitary Operations in the Congo.It was a document written by James Price and Paul Juredini, both of who worked for the Special Operations Research Office, SORO, which was an agency that undertook top secret contract work for the military.

A medieval tale of a dead bishop's treasure, a pope and a pirate whose name means "fire blast" or "fire fart" has been revealed in newly published documents from the Vatican archives.The tale may seem more like Hollywood than reality."Hollywood could use this story. But Hollywood does not know anything about it because it is buried in the documents edited here,".

A shipwreck uncovered beneath the icy wastes of northern Canada has been identified as long-lost HMS Erebus.The Victorian-era vessel became part of nautical folklore after it vanished in the mid-19th Century.Its captain, Sir John Franklin, had been searching for the fabled Northwest Passage.

There isn't enough neon on the surface of Jupiter. This rather prosaic fact might point to one of the most spectacular sights in the solar system. Inside Jupiter, it might rain neon streaks.Jupiter is a disappointed sun. It is a massive cloud of gas that gets denser and denser towards the center, but never condenses to the point at which its center elements start fusing together. It's not big enough. It's still fairly big, though, and comprises many different kinds of elements at many different levels. The Galileo probe mission found, recently, that at its surface - or rather at the top of the clouds farthest from the planets center - there is a dearth of neon.

Archaeologists in Spain say they have found one of the world's earliest known images of Jesus. It is engraved on a glass plate dating back to the 4th Century AD, reports from Spain say.The plate is believed to have been used to hold Eucharistic bread as it was consecrated in early Christian rituals. It measures 22cm in diameter and fragments of it were unearthed outside the southern Spanish city of Linares.

Beneath the waves, many creatures sport iridescent structures that rival what materials scientists can make in the laboratory. Researchers have now shown how giant clams use these structures to thrive, operating as exceedingly efficient, living greenhouses that grow symbiotic algae as a source of food. This understanding could have implications for alternative energy research, paving the way for new types of solar panels.

Solar panel farms tie up large tracts of land. In small countries that can be a problem. French company Ciel et Terre has a solution: float solar arrays on reservoirs, quarry lakes, irrigation canals or remediation ponds. The installation can make these waterways serve a double purpose, while at the same time reducing evaporation.The United Kingdom is getting its first floating solar farm near Berkshire. Eight hundred photovoltaic panels are being installed on a reservoir at Sheeplands Farm near Wargrave.

Women who accept and tolerate their imperfections appear to have a more positive body image despite their body mass index and are better able to handle personal disappointments and setbacks in their daily lives. Research has found that this self-compassion might be an important means to increase positive body image and protect girls and young women against unhealthy weight-control practices and eating disorders.Related: An apple a day could keep obesity away

Former GP Sue Mildred suffered from crippling depression and anxiety for 20 years.On two occasions it was so severe that she ended up in hospital, and for 15 years she was unable to work.Sue, 51, has tried antidepressants, talking therapies and, out of desperation, even ECT (electro-convulsive therapy), where an electric current is passed through the brain.

A 19th-century mummified fetus that underwent an ancient surgical procedure while in its mother's womb has been discovered by researchers in Italy, according to a new report.The procedure was apparently done when a mother's life was in danger or the fetus had already died.

Discovery means Paleolithic man penetrated hundreds of kilometres further north than previously understood.Studies on the intriguing rhino spear are still ongoing but this remarkable find - seen as having considerable archeological significance - was shown to Vladimir Putin on his recent visit to Yakutsk, capital of the Sakha Republic.

Well, we certainly live in the future: The Associated Press is reporting that one of the women who received a transplanted womb last year has since given birth. Her baby boy, while premature, is reportedly healthy.The mother is 36, and was born without a uterus. Her donated organ came from a close family friend -- a 61-year-old woman who'd already had two children of her own and gone through menopause.

In the latest exciting archaeological find in Egypt, the remains of a city, which is widely suspected to be from the Roman era, has been uncovered under a layer of silt in the Nile.The Romans had a long history of stretching their empire far beyond their own borders. The Romans also had a particular inclination towards Egypt's mystical origins. Those two facts coupled together have left us with a rich plethora of Roman-era artifacts here in Egypt, and the latest exciting find is a city dating back to this era.

Dracula might be a fictional character, but archaeologists believe they've found the haunts of Vlad the Impaler--the real-life figure who inspired Bram Stoker's vampire tale.The researchers said this week they had uncovered a secret tunnel and two dungeons in Tokat Castle in northern Turkey, where Vlad the Impaler is believed to have been imprisoned in the mid-1400s.

Evolution is often said to be "blind," because there's no outside force guiding natural selection. But changes in genetic material that occur at the molecular level are not entirely random, a new study suggests. These mutations are guided by both the physical properties of the genetic code and the need to preserve the critical function of proteins, the researchers said.

When we search for the seat of humanity, are we looking at the wrong part of the brain? Most neuroscientists assume that the neocortex, the brain's distinctive folded outer layer, is the thing that makes us uniquely human. But a new study suggests that another part of the brain, the cerebellum, grew much faster in our ape ancestors.

Some sharks are 'gregarious' and have strong social connections, whilst others are more solitary and prefer to remain inconspicuous, according to a new study which is the first to show that the notorious predators have personality traits.Personalities are known to exist in many animals, but are usually defined by individual characteristics such as how exploratory, bold or aggressive an individual is.Related: Reptiles, Sharks May Be More Like Us Than You Ever Thought

Some creatures will go to great lengths just to save a little energy. Take the blind Mexican cavefish; this super-efficient animal uses almost 30 percent less energy to survive than its counterparts in surface waters, and it accomplishes this in a rather interesting way, a new study suggests.The blind Mexican tetra or cavefish (Astyanax mexicanus) saves energy by forgoing circadian rhythms, according to researchers at Lund University in Sweden.

A trio of researchers with the University of Miami has recorded sounds made by fish larvae in both the open ocean and in their lab. In their paper published in the journal Biology Letters, Erica Staaterman, Claire Paris and Andrew Kough describe how they captured the larvae sounds and offer ideas on why they are made.Alt: Ghostly Sounds at Night Are Often Made by Fish

On 27 August 1883, the Earth let out a noise louder than any it has made since.It was 10:02 AM local time when the sound emerged from the island of Krakatoa, which sits between Java and Sumatra in Indonesia.In all, it was heard by people in over 50 different geographical locations, together spanning an area covering a thirteenth of the globe.Related: Massive Volcanic Eruption Is Making Iceland Grow

Researchers from the University of Southern Denmark have synthesized crystalline materials that can bind and store oxygen in high concentrations. Just one spoon of the substance is enough to absorb all the oxygen in a room. The stored oxygen can be released again when and where it is needed.We do fine with the 21 per cent oxygen in the air around us. But sometimes we need oxygen in higher concentrations.

There's a particle that physicists theorize exists that acts simultaneously as both matter and antimatter. Whoa! The particle is called the Majorana fermion, and a team of physicists is announcing today that it's seen some evidence of its existence.The announcement is part of a recent flurry of research aimed at finding Majorana fermions, including studies that have found other evidence of the particles' existence. Majorana fermions are exotic particles, or particles with unusual properties that at least some physics theories predict should exist.

Scientists have lots of bizarre theories about black holes. Black holes gobble up everything that gets too close, even light. They can cause time to slow. They contain entire universes.But here's something about black holes you might not have heard: they simply don't exist.

A nearby star is not acting its age, thanks to the influence of a massive exoplanet.The close-orbiting alien planet, known as WASP-18b, is apparently disrupting the magnetic field of its host star so much that the object is behaving like a much older star, researchers said.

A giant cloud that covers the south pole of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, has a surprisingly poisonous nature: It's made of cyanide. The giant cloud, first spotted by NASA's Cassini spacecraft in 2012, is the size of Egypt and covers Titan's south pole.The discovery suggests that the air above Titan's poles can get much cooler than previously thought, scientists said.

A massive feature on the moon formed due to lunar rifts, in a surprise revision to earlier theories, research shows. Previously, scientists thought the moon's Ocean of Storms was a round crater left after a giant impact, but now researchers have found it is underlain by a giant rectangle created by cooling lunar lava as the moon formed.Related: Solving the mystery of the 'man in the moon': Volcanic plume, not an asteroid, likely created the moon's largest basin

Not all rainbows are as colorful as their reputation suggests. There are some spectacular monochrome rainbows, when the conditions are right. The cooler shades drop out of the rainbow, leaving bands of yellow, orange, and red. Sometimes the rainbow narrows down to a bright red streak of light.

Scientists are using pulsed light to remove allergens from peanuts in the hope that most people will be able to eat them safely.If allergens can be cut from 150 milligrams of protein per peanut to below 1.5 milligrams, 95 percent of people with peanut allergies would be safe, researchers say.

Has a team of Chilean scientists finally put an end to the decades-long debate over how birds evolved from dinosaurs? Well, not entirely. But they have clarified some critical details about one small but significant part: the wrist.Led by University of Chile biologist Alexander Vargas, the team sought to understand how the wrist evolved from a rigid fixture in dinosaurs to the hyperflexible structure found in the wings their only known living descendants.

Ongoing pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong have drawn tens of thousands of citizens, taking to the streets, demonstrating their opposition to news that China will choose the candidates for the upcoming 2017 election.During one of those protests, the crowd got a little something extra as a brightly lit object appeared in the sky above the throng, moving slowly at first and then, as the BBC caught it on camera, the UFO suddenly shot up in the air out of sight.

Stop Press - Latest News From The Excavations At Gunung Padang, The Mysterious Ancient Pyramid In Indonesia That Is Rewriting HistoryBy Graham Hancock.The archaeological establishment is scrambling to find some reason to reject and pour scorn on the extraordinary consequences of the excavations now taking place at Gunung Padang in Indonesia.

An ESA satellite has spotted something unusual happening in the Antarctic: As the ice has dwindled there over the last five years, they're also seeing a change in the Earth's gravity.The GOCE satellite was launched in 2009 to undertake a detailed mapping of Earth's gravity, along with any fluctuations in strength. As researchers recently began analyzing the data they'd received, they noticed something curious: the variations in gravity they were seeing in the Antarctic were mirrored by the changes in ice as the collapse of the ice sheet there accelerated.

Climate change could affect the ratio of human males to human females that are born in some countries, a new study from Japan suggests. The researchers found that male fetuses may be particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change.Since the 1970s, temperature fluctuations from the norm have become more common in Japan, and at the same time there has been an increase in the deaths of male fetuses, relative to the number of deaths of female fetuses in that country, according to the study.

Three years ago, an adult chimpanzee called Nick dipped a piece of moss into a watering hole in Uganda's Budongo Forest. Watched by a female, Nambi, he lifted the moss to his mouth and squeezed the water out. Nambi copied him and, over the next six days, moss sponging began to spread through the community. A chimp trend was born.Alt: Wild chimps ape each other with a new 'tool' - and reveal how their culture evolves

New research has for the first time provided evidence that reptiles could be capable of social learning through imitation.The ability to acquire new skills through the 'true imitation' of others' behaviour is thought to be unique to humans and advanced primates, such as chimpanzees.

Some species of bats may mistake wind turbines for tall trees, and follow seemingly familiar air flow patterns to their doom.US researchers used thermal and infra-red surveillance cameras to observe bat behaviour around three wind turbines over three months, and report their results in today's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A device that fits into a shoe harvests the energy made by walking and successfully uses it in watch batteries.At the Center for Research in Advanced Materials (CIMAV), scientists decided to "capture" the energy produced by people walking. They designed a pill-shaped cylinder adapted to a shoe in order to store the mechanical-vibrational energy the person generates when walking.

El Hierro, a tiny Spanish island off the west coast of Africa, has done away with fossil fuels. In just a few months time, the entire island will be running on 100 percent renewable energy - from the power of wind and water.Related: Solar Energy Could Dominate Electricity by 2050

Present-day lithium batteries are efficient but involve a range of resource and environmental problems. Using materials from alfalfa (lucerne seed) and pine resin and a clever recycling strategy, researchers have now come up with a highly interesting alternative.Related: Battery system will be able to light 2,500 homes

Using a bio-mimicking analog of one of nature's most efficient light-harvesting structures, blades of grass, an international research team has taken a major step in developing long-sought polymer architecture to boost power-conversion efficiency of light to electricity for use in electronic devices.

The death toll at Japan's Mount Ontake volcano climbed to 36 today (Sept. 29), with rescue crews still searching for missing people.The eruption caught the hikers by surprise this weekend. More than 250 people were exploring shrines and resorts at the 10,062-foot-high (3,067 meters) peak, the country's second-tallest volcano.Related: Japan's volcanoes: Could Fuji be next?

In research published on 09/28/2014 in the journal Nature Neuroscience, scientists show that neural recordings can be used to forecast when spontaneous decisions will take place. "Experiments like this have been used to argue that free will is an illusion," says Zachary Mainen, a neuroscientist at the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, in Lisbon, Portugal, who led the study, "but we think that interpretation is mistaken.".

Archaeologists working at the site of Issos in the province of Hatay, Turkey, a thriving city beginning in about 545 B.C. and lasting several millennia down to the Ottoman period, have discovered an ancient music chamber according to the Hurriyet Daily News.

Sophisticated oceangoing canoes and favorable winds may have helped early human settlers colonize New Zealand, a pair of new studies shows.The remote archipelagos of East Polynesia were among the last habitable places on Earth that humans were able to colonize. In New Zealand, human history only began around 1200-1300, when intrepid voyagers arrived by boat through several journeys over some generations.

About 210 million years ago when the supercontinent of Pangea was starting to break up and dog-sized dinosaurs were hiding from nearly everything, entirely different kinds of reptiles called phytosaurs and rauisuchids were at the top of the food chain.It was widely believed the two top predators didn't interact much as the former was king of the water, and the latter ruled the land. But those ideas are changing, thanks largely to the contents of a single bone.

An ancient Egyptian mummy is sparking new questions among archaeologists, because it has one very rare feature: The blood vessels surrounding the mummy's brain left imprints on the inside of the skull.The researchers are trying to find what process could have led to the preservation of these extremely fragile structures.

Geological evidence tells us that ancient Earth probably looked and felt very different from the planet we all recognize today. Billions of years ago, our world was a comparatively harsh place. Earth likely had a hotter climate, acidic oceans and an atmosphere loaded with carbon dioxide. The fact that manmade climate change, through carbon dioxide pollution, is re-introducing such hotter, acidified conditions demonstrates their intertwinement.

Astronomers tend to assume that the timing of Earth-striking meteors are completely random, but a recent analysis suggests that meteor impacts are more likely to occur at certain times of the year and at certain locations.Such is the conclusion of researchers Carlos and Raul de la Fuente Marcos of the Complutense University of Madrid.

For decades, planetary geologists have speculated that glaciers might once have crept through Valles Marineris, the 2000-mile-long chasm that constitutes the Grand Canyon of Mars. Using satellite images, researchers have identified features that might have been carved by past glaciers as they flowed through the canyons; however, these observations have remained highly controversial and contested.

Scientists are to turn the Moon into a giant particle detector to help understand the origin of Ultra-High-Energy (UHE) cosmic rays -- the most energetic particles in the Universe. The origin of UHE cosmic rays is one of the great mysteries in astrophysics. Nobody knows where these extremely rare cosmic rays come from or how they get their enormous energies. Physicists detect them on Earth at a rate of less than one particle per square kilometer per century.

If a tiny device could be implanted in your body to give you self-healing powers, would you want one?That question is on many minds now that the Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has announced that just such a device is in the works: an electronic implant, injected via a needle, that would monitor the health of internal organs and help the body heal itself when illness or injury strikes.

Brain activity can be used to tell whether someone recognizes details they encountered in normal, daily life, which may have implications for criminal investigations and use in courtrooms, new research shows. The findings suggest that a particular brain wave, known as P300, could serve as a marker that identifies places, objects, or other details that a person has seen and recognizes from everyday life.

Below one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world, scientists have made a remarkable discovery: a living, cat-sized mammal that until now was only known from fossils.The Machu Picchu arboreal chinchilla rat (Cuscomys oblativa) was first described from two enigmatic skulls discovered in Incan pottery sculpted 400 years ago.

A molecule used as a communication system by bacteria can be manipulated to prevent cancer cells from spreading, a study has demonstrated. "During an infection, bacteria release molecules which allow them to 'talk' to each other," said the lead author of the study. "Depending on the type of molecule released, the signal will tell other bacteria to multiply, escape the immune system or even stop spreading.".

Scientists have designed a new class of antibiotic which seeks and destroys resistance genes in bacteria.The unique approach could be used to genetically engineer bacteria in our bodies to become less dangerous.

Australian researchers have achieved groundbreaking results in a clinical trial using hookworms to reduce the symptoms of celiac disease.The results are also good news for sufferers of other inflammatory conditions such as asthma and Crohn's disease.

Fruits and vegetables could be as good for your mental wellbeing as it is for your physical health, according to a recent study.Researchers from the University of Warwick found that high and low mental wellbeing were consistently associated with an individual's fruit and vegetable consumption.Related: Brain repair 'may be boosted by curry spice'

It's well known that omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 LC-PUFA) can help to prevent heart disease but new research has found that these essential fatty acids can also increase the chance of paternity success.The results published today in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters looked at the guppy Poecilia reticulata, a live-bearing fish with a highly promiscuous mating system in which sperm typically compete for fertilisations.

Simultaneously using mobile phones, laptops and other media devices could be changing the structure of our brains, according to new research. People who frequently use several media devices at the same time have lower grey-matter density in one particular region of the brain compared to those who use just one device occasionally.

Scientists from the University of Queensland in Australia have discovered that mantis shrimp have an incredibly useful ability - the marine creatures are able to see a variety of cancers inside our bodies. And they've now replicated that ability in a camera that could eventually be put into a smartphone.

Mothers outnumbered fathers throughout much of human history, a new DNA analysis of people around the world shows.The genetic findings offer evidence for polygyny, when one man has many wives, and other reproductive customs, as people migrated out of Africa.

Fossilized, primitive amphibians with odd-looking appendages, some with extra toes and deformed shapes, suggest the ability of some vertebrates to regenerate or regrow amputated limbs first evolved at least 300 million years ago.Salamanders are the only modern four-legged vertebrates, or animals that have backbones, able to fully regenerate their limbs into adulthood.

As air strikes begin, archaeologists are turning to safer countries of Turkmenistan and GeorgiaAdvances by Islamic State (IS) forces have threatened one of the last safe regions of Mesopotamia still open to archaeologists by driving up the risks of working in Iraqi Kurdistan, it is feared. This month, a team of Italian archaeologists left their excavation site in Irbil, heading overland to Turkey.

A 5000-year-old water system has been unearthed during the second season of a rescue excavation project at the Farash ancient historical site at the Seimareh Dam reservoir area in western Iran.This system, which comprises a small pool and an earthenware pipeline, was discovered on the eastern shore of the reservoir of the dam on the border between Ilam Province and Lorestan Province.

Scientists have found the beginnings of life-bearing chemistry at the centre of the galaxy.Iso-propyl cyanide has been detected in a star-forming cloud 27,000 light-years from Earth.

Private companies want to mine asteroids for fuel, and build filling stations in space. A bill now in front of the US Congress would help by allowing them to own what they discover - but it might, if passed, meet stiff international opposition.Chris Lewicki is trying to get water from a stone. A really big stone thousands of miles from Earth.

One of the big questions in cosmology regards the shape of the universe. "Shape" in this case is not the distribution of galaxies, but rather the shape of space and time itself. In general relativity, space and time can be warped by masses (producing the effect of gravity), and it can be warped by dark energy (producing cosmic expansion). Knowing the shape of the cosmos lets us determine if it is finite in size or infinite, and whether it will expand forever or collapse back upon itself.

When the International Astronomical Union came up with an official definition of a planet in 2006, they booted Pluto out of the club and reclassified it as a dwarf planet. But some say the discovery of exoplanets requires that we revisit this definition and give Pluto a second chance.The current, official definition says that a planet is a celestial body that:1- is in orbit around the Sun2- is round or nearly round, and3- has "cleared the neighborhood" around its orbit.

New modeling studies from Carnegie's Alan Boss demonstrate that most of the stars we see were formed when unstable clusters of newly formed protostars broke up. These protostars are born out of rotating clouds of dust and gas, which act as nurseries for star formation. Rare clusters of multiple protostars remain stable and mature into multi-star systems. The unstable ones will eject stars until they achieve stability and end up as single or binary stars.

The biggest mystery associated with the gods is why they came here in the first place. There are a variety of theories as to why an advanced civilization would come to the Earth. The one that often surfaces is that there were problems on their home world such as overpopulation, pollution, or a shortage of natural resources. These issues could have caused a group of explorers to leave their planet and seek out new life and new civilizations. It could be that their home world was destroyed and a lucky few managed to escape. Perhaps the Galactic Federation of Planets needed to create a way station between heaven (Asgard) and hell (Hel).

A team of researchers with members from Iceland, Sweden and Saudi Arabia has found evidence of chemical changes to underground well water prior to two different earthquakes that occurred in 2012 and 2013 in Iceland. In their paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience, the researchers acknowledge that their findings do not suggest that they have found a reliable earthquake precursor, but they do believe they may be on to something. S.E. Ingebritsen with the U.S. Geological Survey and M. Manga with the University of California, describe the research in a News & Views piece in the same journal issue and suggest that more such research be done.

Measurements by scientists at the Munich University of Technology have revealed tree growth rates have rapidly increased by 70 percent compared to 50 years ago. The scientists conducted their study on experimental forest plots which are well-controlled, and compared their data to historical data taken continuously since 1870.Related: It's official! Summer of 2014 was hottest on record

If there's one thing to be said for Curiosity's mission on Mars so far, it certainly hasn't been boring. From supposed Martian squirrels to strange flashes of light on the surface, the rover has kept us entertained. And now there's this rather odd... ball.Related: 'Traffic Light' On Mars Spotted In NASA Curiosity Rover Photo

Physicists have succeeded in teleporting the quantum state of a photon to a crystal over 25 kilometers of optical fiber. The experiment constitutes a first, and simply pulverizes the previous record of 6 kilometers achieved ten years ago by the same team. Passing from light into matter, using teleportation of a photon to a crystal, shows that, in quantum physics, it is not the composition of a particle which is important, but rather its state, since this can exist and persist outside such extreme differences as those which distinguish light from matter.

Birds didn't evolve in one fell swoop from their dinosaur ancestors, suggests a newly constructed dinosaur family tree showing our feathery friends evolved very gradually, at first.The new pedigree of carnivorous dinosaur evolution is the most comprehensive one ever assembled, the researchers say. The findings show that birdlike features such as wings and feathers developed slowly over tens of millions of years.

Neanderthals' capabilities are still hotly debated. Some argue that before modern humans replaced them, Neanderthals showed cultural capabilities similar to those of modern humans, while others make a case that these similarities only appear once Neanderthals came in contact with modern humans. "The new data from Willendorf clearly shows that modern humans were present in what is now Austria while Neanderthals still occupied other regions of Europe suggesting that the two species met, and may have exchanged mates and ideas", explains Philip Nigst. "This means the changes in the material culture of some of the last Neanderthal groups are most probably related to direct or indirect contact with modern humans".

Different palaeolithic populations around the world might have developed a crucial toolmaking skill independently. This conclusion, based on the analysis of hundreds of artefacts from a recently excavated archaeological site in Armenia, weakens a long-held theory that Stone Age people in Eurasia learnt sophisticated techniques from migrating African tribes.Related: Prehistoric Stone Tools Evolved Independently Within Local Populations, Say Researchers

Traditionally robots have been big, powerful, metallic objects that might weld doors onto cars in a factory," Wood says. "The robots we explore are dramatically different, some on a new, micro-sized scale, others made of soft rather than rigid materials.Related: Robot Octopus Swims Faster Than Ever

There was an understandable amount of skepticism when Amazon announced its grand plans for delivery drones last year. But if the last twelve months are any indication, Jeff Bezos and his fellow tech heavyweights are actually kinda serious about the potential of unmanned aerial vehicles.Related: Facebook says its internet drones will be the size of 747s and fly for years

Medicine deliveries to a pharmacy on a North Sea island will be made by a drone, Deutsche Post announced on Wednesday, in the first project of its kind.It is the first time that an unmanned drone will be used for a practical business purpose in Europe, the company claims.

The race is on to optimize solar energy's performance. More efficient silicon photovoltaic panels, dye-sensitized solar cells, concentrated cells and thermodynamic solar plants all pursue the same goal: to produce a maximum amount of electrons from sunlight. Those electrons can then be converted into electricity to turn on lights and power your refrigerator.At the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces at EPFL, led by Michael Gratzel, where scientists invented dye solar cells that mimic photosynthesis in plants, they have also developed methods for generating fuels such as hydrogen through solar water splitting.

A photograph has emerged depicting soldiers from a regiment of the British Army, proudly holding skulls found around the Amphipolis Tomb in Greece, raising questions about whether they may have plundered the tomb nearly a century ago.The King's Shropshire Light Infantry (KSLI), a regiment of the British Army formed in 1881, was posted to Thessalonika in Greece in 1915 at the request of the Greek Prime Minister and spent nearly three years fighting the Bulgarians in Macedonia.

On Vieques Island off the coast of Puerto Rico, two ancient South American tribes coexisted for more than 1000 years, from 5 to 1170 C.E. The Saladoids were known for their white and red painted pottery, as well as their openness to learning from other cultures. The Huecoids, in contrast, were mysterious craftsmen who skillfully carved semiprecious stones and kept to themselves.

Scientists have discovered some of the oldest multicellular organisms - and possibly the world's first animals - in 600 million year old Ediacaran fossils from China.A detailed examination of the unusual, small, spheroidal fossilised organisms concludes that they could be the ancient precursors to animals, or a type of multicellular algae.

The Amazon is being fertilised by the remains of ancient fish from Africa.The nutrient-rich material is being carried in millions of tonnes of dust blown across the Atlantic from the Sahara every year.

Brazilian researchers in Rio de Janeiro have released thousands of mosquitoes infected with bacteria that suppress dengue fever.The hope is they will multiply, breed and become the majority of mosquitoes, thus reducing cases of the disease.

A mysterious butterfly-shaped cloud spotted over St. Louis last week was built from actual butterflies, the National Weather Service said.In a rare coincidence, a giant swarm of migrating monarch butterflies resembled a butterfly on radar for a short time Friday afternoon (Sept. 19). Forecasters suspect a giant cluster of monarchs was flying between 5,000 feet and 6,000 feet (1,525 meters to 1,825 meters) above the ground, heading south to Mexico. Though small, their fluttering wings are good radar targets, the National Weather Service (NWS) said on Facebook. No one saw the butterflies, but the radar signals suggest the "targets" were flapping, flat and biological, similar to a monarch.

Two of the rarest birds of prey in England, which had been satellite tagged, have vanished in unexplained circumstances, conservationists say.The young female hen harriers had left their nest sites in Lancashire only a few weeks ago.

The National Geographic Society announced a major expansion Monday of its campaign to help protect the planet's most species-rich marine areas, with a goal of convincing governments to officially safeguard more than 770,000 square miles (two million square kilometers) of ocean.Related: U.S. Creates Largest Protected Area in the World, 3X Larger Than California

Native tribes from the U.S. and Canada signed a treaty Tuesday establishing an inter-tribal alliance to restore bison to areas of the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains where millions of the animals once roamed.Leaders of about a dozen tribes from Montana and Alberta signed the pact during a daylong ceremony on Montana's Blackfeet Reservation, organizers said.

Mars has welcomed a new robotic visitor from Earth.After a 10-month journey through deep space, NASA's MAVEN probe arrived in Mars orbit late Sunday (Sept. 21), on a mission to help scientists figure out why the Red Planet changed from a relatively warm and wet place in the ancient past to the cold, arid world it is today.

VANCOUVER - Researchers using a robotic underwater vehicle off British Columbia's northern coast believe they may have found the earliest evidence of human habitation in Canada.Unfortunately, the site that could date back almost 14,000 years lies beneath hundreds of metres of water in the ocean around the Haida Gwaii archipelago.