Newsdesk Archive

Granted that Rome was not built in a day, the unresolved question among scholars has been just how long did it take. How early, before Julius Caesar came, saw and conquered, did Romans begin adopting a monumental architecture reflecting the grandeur of their ambitions?Most historians agree that early Rome had nothing to compare to the sublime temples of Greece and was not a particularly splendid city, like Alexandria in Egypt.

Researchers from Tel Aviv University have unearthed the remains of massive ancient fortifications built around an Iron-Age Assyrian harbor in present-day Israel.At the heart of the well-preserved fortifications is a mud-brick wall up to more than 12 feet wide and 15 feet high. The wall is covered in layers of mud and sand that stretch for hundreds of feet on either side. When they were built in the eighth century B.C.E., the fortifications formed a daunting crescent-shaped defense for an inland area covering more than 17 acres.

As Egypt plunges deeper into the political turmoil, looters take advantage of the situation

A 10-year legal battle is drawing to a close in the Holy Land over several astounding biblical relics, including a limestone box said to have held the bones of the purported brother of Jesus and the first-ever relic of biblical King Solomon's First Temple.But are they real or the greatest hoax in a hundred years?

California's rich diversity of Native American ethnic-and-language groups took shape during the past 12,000 years as migrating tribes settled first on the lush Pacific coast and then in progressively drier, less-vegetated habitats, says a new University of Utah study.

A recently discovered globe from the early 1500s, carved onto ostrich eggs, may be the oldest globe of the New World ever identified, experts say.Latin inscriptions dot its surface, and two small islands sit in the place of what we now know as North America. But the globe's origins remain a mystery.

Even in the Bronze Age there was more to life than work. Excavations at a burial site in south-east Turkey have revealed a set of 49 sculpted pieces that may once have been used in board games. They are among the oldest evidence of such games ever found.Haluk Saglamtimur at Ege University in Izmir, Turkey, and colleagues made the find during excavations of a 5000-year-old burial at the site of Basur Hoyuk, according to Discovery News.

Last week, CNN

When it comes to classical music competitions, one could be forgiven for thinking how well someone plays is the single most important factor. New research conducted by a recent Harvard graduate, however, suggests otherwise.In a study by Chia-Jung Tsay, who last year earned a Ph.D. in organizational behavior with a secondary Ph.D. field in music, nearly all participants

"Philanthropy" is usually a word we associate with the world of adults and rich people. Increasingly though, children from a spread of socio-economic backgrounds are participating in and learning about what it means to be philanthropic, both at home and at school.As well as helping those in need, the evidence shows getting children involved in philanthropy has positive effects for the children, their families and society more generally.

When it comes to getting preschoolers to share their toys, a new study finds that giving them a choice to share, rather than a reward, helps them share more with others in the future.In new evidence announced Monday, investigators from Cornell University in the U.S. conducted a series of experiments on 72 preschool-aged children, from three to five years old.Findings suggest that sharing when given a difficult choice leads children to see themselves in a new, more beneficent light, researchers said.

A nuclear expert has told the BBC that he believes the current water leaks at Fukushima are much worse than the authorities have stated.Mycle Schneider is an independent consultant who has previously advised the French and German governments.He says water is leaking out all over the site and there are no accurate figures for radiation levels.

Two contradictory ideas shape UK politics. First, the argument for austerity, that the nation cannot and should not live beyond its financial means. Second, the notion that we can and must, in effect, live beyond our environmental means. That is why any increase in our spending and consumption is hailed as economic success.Today, the world goes into ecological debt, or "overshoot"

The Faroe Islands were colonised much earlier than previously believed, and it wasn't by the Vikings, according to new research.New archaeological evidence places human colonisation in the 4th to 6th centuries AD, at least 300-500 years earlier than previously demonstrated.

A new article is now available on the articles page titled:Genetic Evidence for Paleolithic Exploration of the Americas by Europeans during the Ice AgeOpening lines:Lightly pigmented skin and red hair are traits that originally appeared in humans as a result of a random mutation in the nucleotide sequence of a gene known as MC1R. According to genetic studies, the first hint of this mutation, which acted to alter the complex molecular pathways that deposit pigments in epithelial tissue, occurred approximately 100,000 years ago in Europe.

A team of scientists say they have uncovered evidence of early humans in China dating back at least 1.6 million years, the oldest signs of early humans in North China.In a paper published in the scholarly journal Scientific Reports, Chinese Academy of Sciences geologist Hong Ao and his team determined that tools and other artifacts found at the Shangshazui Paleolithic site in China's Nihewan Basin were deposited there between 1.6 and million 1.7 million years ago. Previously, the artifacts were thought to be 1 million years old.

A study by a postgraduate researcher at the University of Southampton has found that Neanderthals were more culturally complex than previously acknowledged. Two cultural traditions existed among Neanderthals living in what is now northern Europe between 115,000 to 35,000 years ago.

Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a 4,000-year-old man preserved in an Irish peat bog, marking the oldest European body ever found with skin still intact.The cool, waterlogged conditions of Northern European bogs (a type of wetland) create low-oxygen, highly acidic environments ideal for body preservation. As a result, hundreds of "bog bodies" dating back thousands of years have been uncovered in the region, but many have shriveled down to mostly skeletons and tend to be closer to 2,000 years old.

Granted that Rome was not built in a day, the unresolved question among scholars has been just how long did it take. How early, before Julius Caesar came, saw and conquered, did Romans begin adopting a monumental architecture reflecting the grandeur of their ambitions?Most historians agree that early Rome had nothing to compare to the sublime temples of Greece and was not a particularly splendid city, like Alexandria in Egypt.

Researchers from Tel Aviv University have unearthed the remains of massive ancient fortifications built around an Iron-Age Assyrian harbor in present-day Israel.At the heart of the well-preserved fortifications is a mud-brick wall up to more than 12 feet wide and 15 feet high. The wall is covered in layers of mud and sand that stretch for hundreds of feet on either side. When they were built in the eighth century B.C.E., the fortifications formed a daunting crescent-shaped defense for an inland area covering more than 17 acres.

As Egypt plunges deeper into the political turmoil, looters take advantage of the situation

A 10-year legal battle is drawing to a close in the Holy Land over several astounding biblical relics, including a limestone box said to have held the bones of the purported brother of Jesus and the first-ever relic of biblical King Solomon's First Temple.But are they real or the greatest hoax in a hundred years?

California's rich diversity of Native American ethnic-and-language groups took shape during the past 12,000 years as migrating tribes settled first on the lush Pacific coast and then in progressively drier, less-vegetated habitats, says a new University of Utah study.

A recently discovered globe from the early 1500s, carved onto ostrich eggs, may be the oldest globe of the New World ever identified, experts say.Latin inscriptions dot its surface, and two small islands sit in the place of what we now know as North America. But the globe's origins remain a mystery.

Even in the Bronze Age there was more to life than work. Excavations at a burial site in south-east Turkey have revealed a set of 49 sculpted pieces that may once have been used in board games. They are among the oldest evidence of such games ever found.Haluk Saglamtimur at Ege University in Izmir, Turkey, and colleagues made the find during excavations of a 5000-year-old burial at the site of Basur Hoyuk, according to Discovery News.

Last week, CNN

When it comes to classical music competitions, one could be forgiven for thinking how well someone plays is the single most important factor. New research conducted by a recent Harvard graduate, however, suggests otherwise.In a study by Chia-Jung Tsay, who last year earned a Ph.D. in organizational behavior with a secondary Ph.D. field in music, nearly all participants

"Philanthropy" is usually a word we associate with the world of adults and rich people. Increasingly though, children from a spread of socio-economic backgrounds are participating in and learning about what it means to be philanthropic, both at home and at school.As well as helping those in need, the evidence shows getting children involved in philanthropy has positive effects for the children, their families and society more generally.

When it comes to getting preschoolers to share their toys, a new study finds that giving them a choice to share, rather than a reward, helps them share more with others in the future.In new evidence announced Monday, investigators from Cornell University in the U.S. conducted a series of experiments on 72 preschool-aged children, from three to five years old.Findings suggest that sharing when given a difficult choice leads children to see themselves in a new, more beneficent light, researchers said.

A nuclear expert has told the BBC that he believes the current water leaks at Fukushima are much worse than the authorities have stated.Mycle Schneider is an independent consultant who has previously advised the French and German governments.He says water is leaking out all over the site and there are no accurate figures for radiation levels.

Two contradictory ideas shape UK politics. First, the argument for austerity, that the nation cannot and should not live beyond its financial means. Second, the notion that we can and must, in effect, live beyond our environmental means. That is why any increase in our spending and consumption is hailed as economic success.Today, the world goes into ecological debt, or "overshoot"

The Faroe Islands were colonised much earlier than previously believed, and it wasn't by the Vikings, according to new research.New archaeological evidence places human colonisation in the 4th to 6th centuries AD, at least 300-500 years earlier than previously demonstrated.

A new article is now available on the articles page titled:Genetic Evidence for Paleolithic Exploration of the Americas by Europeans during the Ice AgeOpening lines:Lightly pigmented skin and red hair are traits that originally appeared in humans as a result of a random mutation in the nucleotide sequence of a gene known as MC1R. According to genetic studies, the first hint of this mutation, which acted to alter the complex molecular pathways that deposit pigments in epithelial tissue, occurred approximately 100,000 years ago in Europe.

A team of scientists say they have uncovered evidence of early humans in China dating back at least 1.6 million years, the oldest signs of early humans in North China.In a paper published in the scholarly journal Scientific Reports, Chinese Academy of Sciences geologist Hong Ao and his team determined that tools and other artifacts found at the Shangshazui Paleolithic site in China's Nihewan Basin were deposited there between 1.6 and million 1.7 million years ago. Previously, the artifacts were thought to be 1 million years old.

A study by a postgraduate researcher at the University of Southampton has found that Neanderthals were more culturally complex than previously acknowledged. Two cultural traditions existed among Neanderthals living in what is now northern Europe between 115,000 to 35,000 years ago.

Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a 4,000-year-old man preserved in an Irish peat bog, marking the oldest European body ever found with skin still intact.The cool, waterlogged conditions of Northern European bogs (a type of wetland) create low-oxygen, highly acidic environments ideal for body preservation. As a result, hundreds of "bog bodies" dating back thousands of years have been uncovered in the region, but many have shriveled down to mostly skeletons and tend to be closer to 2,000 years old.

Granted that Rome was not built in a day, the unresolved question among scholars has been just how long did it take. How early, before Julius Caesar came, saw and conquered, did Romans begin adopting a monumental architecture reflecting the grandeur of their ambitions?Most historians agree that early Rome had nothing to compare to the sublime temples of Greece and was not a particularly splendid city, like Alexandria in Egypt.

Researchers from Tel Aviv University have unearthed the remains of massive ancient fortifications built around an Iron-Age Assyrian harbor in present-day Israel.At the heart of the well-preserved fortifications is a mud-brick wall up to more than 12 feet wide and 15 feet high. The wall is covered in layers of mud and sand that stretch for hundreds of feet on either side. When they were built in the eighth century B.C.E., the fortifications formed a daunting crescent-shaped defense for an inland area covering more than 17 acres.

As Egypt plunges deeper into the political turmoil, looters take advantage of the situation

A 10-year legal battle is drawing to a close in the Holy Land over several astounding biblical relics, including a limestone box said to have held the bones of the purported brother of Jesus and the first-ever relic of biblical King Solomon's First Temple.But are they real or the greatest hoax in a hundred years?

California's rich diversity of Native American ethnic-and-language groups took shape during the past 12,000 years as migrating tribes settled first on the lush Pacific coast and then in progressively drier, less-vegetated habitats, says a new University of Utah study.

A recently discovered globe from the early 1500s, carved onto ostrich eggs, may be the oldest globe of the New World ever identified, experts say.Latin inscriptions dot its surface, and two small islands sit in the place of what we now know as North America. But the globe's origins remain a mystery.

Even in the Bronze Age there was more to life than work. Excavations at a burial site in south-east Turkey have revealed a set of 49 sculpted pieces that may once have been used in board games. They are among the oldest evidence of such games ever found.Haluk Saglamtimur at Ege University in Izmir, Turkey, and colleagues made the find during excavations of a 5000-year-old burial at the site of Basur Hoyuk, according to Discovery News.

Last week, CNN

When it comes to classical music competitions, one could be forgiven for thinking how well someone plays is the single most important factor. New research conducted by a recent Harvard graduate, however, suggests otherwise.In a study by Chia-Jung Tsay, who last year earned a Ph.D. in organizational behavior with a secondary Ph.D. field in music, nearly all participants

"Philanthropy" is usually a word we associate with the world of adults and rich people. Increasingly though, children from a spread of socio-economic backgrounds are participating in and learning about what it means to be philanthropic, both at home and at school.As well as helping those in need, the evidence shows getting children involved in philanthropy has positive effects for the children, their families and society more generally.

When it comes to getting preschoolers to share their toys, a new study finds that giving them a choice to share, rather than a reward, helps them share more with others in the future.In new evidence announced Monday, investigators from Cornell University in the U.S. conducted a series of experiments on 72 preschool-aged children, from three to five years old.Findings suggest that sharing when given a difficult choice leads children to see themselves in a new, more beneficent light, researchers said.

A nuclear expert has told the BBC that he believes the current water leaks at Fukushima are much worse than the authorities have stated.Mycle Schneider is an independent consultant who has previously advised the French and German governments.He says water is leaking out all over the site and there are no accurate figures for radiation levels.

Two contradictory ideas shape UK politics. First, the argument for austerity, that the nation cannot and should not live beyond its financial means. Second, the notion that we can and must, in effect, live beyond our environmental means. That is why any increase in our spending and consumption is hailed as economic success.Today, the world goes into ecological debt, or "overshoot"

The Faroe Islands were colonised much earlier than previously believed, and it wasn't by the Vikings, according to new research.New archaeological evidence places human colonisation in the 4th to 6th centuries AD, at least 300-500 years earlier than previously demonstrated.

A new article is now available on the articles page titled:Genetic Evidence for Paleolithic Exploration of the Americas by Europeans during the Ice AgeOpening lines:Lightly pigmented skin and red hair are traits that originally appeared in humans as a result of a random mutation in the nucleotide sequence of a gene known as MC1R. According to genetic studies, the first hint of this mutation, which acted to alter the complex molecular pathways that deposit pigments in epithelial tissue, occurred approximately 100,000 years ago in Europe.

A team of scientists say they have uncovered evidence of early humans in China dating back at least 1.6 million years, the oldest signs of early humans in North China.In a paper published in the scholarly journal Scientific Reports, Chinese Academy of Sciences geologist Hong Ao and his team determined that tools and other artifacts found at the Shangshazui Paleolithic site in China's Nihewan Basin were deposited there between 1.6 and million 1.7 million years ago. Previously, the artifacts were thought to be 1 million years old.

A study by a postgraduate researcher at the University of Southampton has found that Neanderthals were more culturally complex than previously acknowledged. Two cultural traditions existed among Neanderthals living in what is now northern Europe between 115,000 to 35,000 years ago.

Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a 4,000-year-old man preserved in an Irish peat bog, marking the oldest European body ever found with skin still intact.The cool, waterlogged conditions of Northern European bogs (a type of wetland) create low-oxygen, highly acidic environments ideal for body preservation. As a result, hundreds of "bog bodies" dating back thousands of years have been uncovered in the region, but many have shriveled down to mostly skeletons and tend to be closer to 2,000 years old.

Researchers from Tel Aviv University have unearthed the remains of massive ancient fortifications built around an Iron-Age Assyrian harbor in present-day Israel.At the heart of the well-preserved fortifications is a mud-brick wall up to more than 12 feet wide and 15 feet high. The wall is covered in layers of mud and sand that stretch for hundreds of feet on either side. When they were built in the eighth century B.C.E., the fortifications formed a daunting crescent-shaped defense for an inland area covering more than 17 acres.

A 10-year legal battle is drawing to a close in the Holy Land over several astounding biblical relics, including a limestone box said to have held the bones of the purported brother of Jesus and the first-ever relic of biblical King Solomon's First Temple.But are they real or the greatest hoax in a hundred years?

California's rich diversity of Native American ethnic-and-language groups took shape during the past 12,000 years as migrating tribes settled first on the lush Pacific coast and then in progressively drier, less-vegetated habitats, says a new University of Utah study.

A recently discovered globe from the early 1500s, carved onto ostrich eggs, may be the oldest globe of the New World ever identified, experts say.Latin inscriptions dot its surface, and two small islands sit in the place of what we now know as North America. But the globe's origins remain a mystery.

Even in the Bronze Age there was more to life than work. Excavations at a burial site in south-east Turkey have revealed a set of 49 sculpted pieces that may once have been used in board games. They are among the oldest evidence of such games ever found.Haluk Saglamtimur at Ege University in Izmir, Turkey, and colleagues made the find during excavations of a 5000-year-old burial at the site of Basur Hoyuk, according to Discovery News.

"Philanthropy" is usually a word we associate with the world of adults and rich people. Increasingly though, children from a spread of socio-economic backgrounds are participating in and learning about what it means to be philanthropic, both at home and at school.As well as helping those in need, the evidence shows getting children involved in philanthropy has positive effects for the children, their families and society more generally.

When it comes to getting preschoolers to share their toys, a new study finds that giving them a choice to share, rather than a reward, helps them share more with others in the future.In new evidence announced Monday, investigators from Cornell University in the U.S. conducted a series of experiments on 72 preschool-aged children, from three to five years old.Findings suggest that sharing when given a difficult choice leads children to see themselves in a new, more beneficent light, researchers said.

A nuclear expert has told the BBC that he believes the current water leaks at Fukushima are much worse than the authorities have stated.Mycle Schneider is an independent consultant who has previously advised the French and German governments.He says water is leaking out all over the site and there are no accurate figures for radiation levels.

An environmentally focused think tank has announced that Earth will be living in what they referred to as an ecological deficit for the remainder of the year.As of Tuesday, humans officially exhausted the planet

Astronomers have captured stunning images of a star in the process of being born, and they are as beautiful as they are counterintuitive.In the images above, you are not seeing the young star itself, but rather massive jets of gases such as carbon monoxide and ionized oxygen that are shooting away from the forming star at speeds of up to 1 million kilometers per hour (about 621,000 mph).When these gas jets crash into the material surrounding the protostar, they begin to glow, creating what is known as the Herbig-Haro effect.

Advances in science could offer hope for the world's besieged coral reefs. Gavin Haines investigates.Whether we are blowing them up with dynamite, dropping anchors on them or warming up the oceans they live in, mankind is leading a sustained attack on the world's coral reefs.A recent report revealed that coral coverage on the Great Barrier Reef has declined by as much as 50% in the last three decades, while reefs in the Caribbean have seen reported losses of 80%.

A genetic-modification technique used widely to make crops herbicide resistant has been shown to confer advantages on a weedy form of rice, even in the absence of the herbicide. The finding suggests that the effects of such modification have the potential to extend beyond farms and into the wild.Several types of crops have been genetically modified to be resistant to glyphosate, an herbicide first marketed under the trade name Roundup. This glyphosate resistance enables farmers to wipe out most weeds from the fields without damaging their crops.

Scientists have discovered a vast plume of iron and other micronutrients more than 1,000 km long billowing from hydrothermal vents in the South Atlantic Ocean. The finding, soon to be published in the journal Nature Geoscience, calls past estimates of iron abundances into question, and may challenge researchers' assumptions about iron sources in the world's seas."This study and other studies like it are going to force the scientific community to reevaluate how much iron is really being contributed by hydrothermal vents and to increase those estimates, and that has implications for not only iron geochemistry but a number of other disciplines as well," says Mak Saito, a WHOI associate scientist and lead author of the study.

On the Antarctic island of South Georgia, in February, toward the middle of what passes for summer at the bottom of the world, I hurried through the ruined whaling station of Grytviken.I had an appointment at the British Antarctic Survey station on the opposite side of King Edward Cove. I was to interview a marine ecologist working on krill. I did not want to be late.

Scotland's red deer are breeding earlier each year, according to scientists studying the impact of climate change on the species.It is thought to be the result of improved grazing, due to the longer growing season in spring and summer.Scientists have been studying the red deer population on the Isle of Rum since 1953.

The ability of Europe's aging forests to absorb carbon dioxide is heading towards saturation point, threatening one of the main defences against global warming, a new study shows.Forests from Spain to Sweden are getting older, packed with trees less good at soaking up the emissions blamed for rising world temperatures, mounting sea levels and increasing numbers of heatwaves and floods, experts warn.

The lack of water is a growing, global problem that seems intractable. While the UN estimates that a large majority of the water we use goes on irrigation, researchers have been working on a range of ideas that make the water we use in agriculture last longer.There has been a great deal of excitement and some dramatic headlines in recent weeks about a product that is said to have the potential to overcome the global challenge of growing crops in arid conditions.

Climate change combined with rapid population increases, economic growth and land subsidence could lead to a more than nine-fold increase in the global risk of floods in large port cities between now and 2050."Future Flood Losses in Major Coastal Cities," published in Nature Climate Change, is part of an ongoing project by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to explore the policy implications of flood risks due to climate change and economic development. This study builds on past OECD work which ranked global port cities on the basis of current and future exposure, where exposure is the maximum number of people or assets that could be affected by a flood.

Managing fish in human-altered rivers is a challenge because their food webs are sensitive to environmental disturbance. So reports a new study in the journal Ecological Monographs, based on an exhaustive three-year analysis of the Colorado River in Glen and Grand Canyons.Food webs are used to map feeding relationships. By describing the structure of these webs, scientists can predict how plants and animals living in an ecosystem will respond to change. Coauthor Dr. Emma Rosi-Marshall, an aquatic ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, comments, "Given the degraded state of the world's rivers, insight into food webs is essential to conserving endangered animals, improving water quality, and managing productive fisheries."

Macaque monkeys that have developed the ability to use stone tools to open shellfish are in danger of losing the skill because of human development.Scientists found that illegal palm oil and rubber plantations in Thailand are disrupting the monkeys' feeding behaviour.Dogs brought in to protect the farms are repelling the macaques from the shoreline, which inhibits their tool-using activities.The study is published in Oryx.

The mournful, curiously repetitious yet ever-changing songs of male humpback whales have long puzzled scientists. The tunes are part of the males

Birds cannot read road signs, but they know that some roads have higher speed limits than others. They will take off further away from an approaching car on a faster road than on a slower road

A newly declassified CIA document confirms the existence of famed Area 51 in Nevada, but conspiracy theorists will be disappointed the spy agency offers no proof of alien spaceship landings in the desert.Area 51 has long been fodder for science fiction films and wild UFO tales claiming the US government imposed secrecy over the site northwest of Las Vegas to cover up evidence of extra-terrestrials touching down on Earth.

Quantum teleportation has taken a great leap forward

Concentrated laser light in the universe may singal the presence of a technological civilizations that might be living on distant planets or in a spacecraft nearby.

On August 20, 2013 at 4:24 am EDT, the sun erupted with an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection or CME, a solar phenomenon which can send billions of tons of particles into space that can reach Earth one to three days later. These particles cannot travel through the atmosphere to harm humans on Earth, but they can affect electronic systems in satellites and on the ground.

On a calm winter's day in Norway two years ago, the sea suddenly started to boil and rise, sending freak waves rolling onto nearby shores and mystifying residents. Turns out, the massive magnitude-9.0 earthquake that shook Japan in 2011 also triggered these surprise seiche waves, a new study shows.Seiche (pronounced saysh) waves are standing waves that form in closed or semi-enclosed water basins, such as Norway's narrow, steep-walled fjords. Smaller examples of standing waves include water sloshing in a bathtub from a wriggly child, or in a swimming pool after an earthquake.

The Maya and the Aztecs believed that cacao was discovered by the gods in a mountain and was to be given to the people following their creation. The Maya held a yearly festival to honor the cacao god Ek Chuah, which included several offerings and rituals to him. Although sustaining the high possibility that is was not a native Mesoamerican crop, the cacao tree was one of the ancient Maya and Aztec

While everyday Web users can load information onto a smartphone using a QR code, artist Anthony Antonellis simply holds his phone within 1 to 2 centimeters of his hand. Thanks to a tiny chip underneath his skin, Antonellis has created the world's first Net art implant."It's 1 to 2KB of storage, and I'm using that to store an animated GIF," he told the New York-based culture Web site Animal. "It works with mobile phones and card readers, and it's usually used for privacy, and I'm using it for a public purpose, which is to distribute artwork."

An environmentally focused think tank has announced that Earth will be living in what they referred to as an ecological deficit for the remainder of the year.As of Tuesday, humans officially exhausted the planet

Astronomers have captured stunning images of a star in the process of being born, and they are as beautiful as they are counterintuitive.In the images above, you are not seeing the young star itself, but rather massive jets of gases such as carbon monoxide and ionized oxygen that are shooting away from the forming star at speeds of up to 1 million kilometers per hour (about 621,000 mph).When these gas jets crash into the material surrounding the protostar, they begin to glow, creating what is known as the Herbig-Haro effect.

Advances in science could offer hope for the world's besieged coral reefs. Gavin Haines investigates.Whether we are blowing them up with dynamite, dropping anchors on them or warming up the oceans they live in, mankind is leading a sustained attack on the world's coral reefs.A recent report revealed that coral coverage on the Great Barrier Reef has declined by as much as 50% in the last three decades, while reefs in the Caribbean have seen reported losses of 80%.

A genetic-modification technique used widely to make crops herbicide resistant has been shown to confer advantages on a weedy form of rice, even in the absence of the herbicide. The finding suggests that the effects of such modification have the potential to extend beyond farms and into the wild.Several types of crops have been genetically modified to be resistant to glyphosate, an herbicide first marketed under the trade name Roundup. This glyphosate resistance enables farmers to wipe out most weeds from the fields without damaging their crops.

Scientists have discovered a vast plume of iron and other micronutrients more than 1,000 km long billowing from hydrothermal vents in the South Atlantic Ocean. The finding, soon to be published in the journal Nature Geoscience, calls past estimates of iron abundances into question, and may challenge researchers' assumptions about iron sources in the world's seas."This study and other studies like it are going to force the scientific community to reevaluate how much iron is really being contributed by hydrothermal vents and to increase those estimates, and that has implications for not only iron geochemistry but a number of other disciplines as well," says Mak Saito, a WHOI associate scientist and lead author of the study.

On the Antarctic island of South Georgia, in February, toward the middle of what passes for summer at the bottom of the world, I hurried through the ruined whaling station of Grytviken.I had an appointment at the British Antarctic Survey station on the opposite side of King Edward Cove. I was to interview a marine ecologist working on krill. I did not want to be late.

Scotland's red deer are breeding earlier each year, according to scientists studying the impact of climate change on the species.It is thought to be the result of improved grazing, due to the longer growing season in spring and summer.Scientists have been studying the red deer population on the Isle of Rum since 1953.

The ability of Europe's aging forests to absorb carbon dioxide is heading towards saturation point, threatening one of the main defences against global warming, a new study shows.Forests from Spain to Sweden are getting older, packed with trees less good at soaking up the emissions blamed for rising world temperatures, mounting sea levels and increasing numbers of heatwaves and floods, experts warn.

The lack of water is a growing, global problem that seems intractable. While the UN estimates that a large majority of the water we use goes on irrigation, researchers have been working on a range of ideas that make the water we use in agriculture last longer.There has been a great deal of excitement and some dramatic headlines in recent weeks about a product that is said to have the potential to overcome the global challenge of growing crops in arid conditions.

Climate change combined with rapid population increases, economic growth and land subsidence could lead to a more than nine-fold increase in the global risk of floods in large port cities between now and 2050."Future Flood Losses in Major Coastal Cities," published in Nature Climate Change, is part of an ongoing project by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to explore the policy implications of flood risks due to climate change and economic development. This study builds on past OECD work which ranked global port cities on the basis of current and future exposure, where exposure is the maximum number of people or assets that could be affected by a flood.

Managing fish in human-altered rivers is a challenge because their food webs are sensitive to environmental disturbance. So reports a new study in the journal Ecological Monographs, based on an exhaustive three-year analysis of the Colorado River in Glen and Grand Canyons.Food webs are used to map feeding relationships. By describing the structure of these webs, scientists can predict how plants and animals living in an ecosystem will respond to change. Coauthor Dr. Emma Rosi-Marshall, an aquatic ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, comments, "Given the degraded state of the world's rivers, insight into food webs is essential to conserving endangered animals, improving water quality, and managing productive fisheries."

Macaque monkeys that have developed the ability to use stone tools to open shellfish are in danger of losing the skill because of human development.Scientists found that illegal palm oil and rubber plantations in Thailand are disrupting the monkeys' feeding behaviour.Dogs brought in to protect the farms are repelling the macaques from the shoreline, which inhibits their tool-using activities.The study is published in Oryx.

The mournful, curiously repetitious yet ever-changing songs of male humpback whales have long puzzled scientists. The tunes are part of the males

Birds cannot read road signs, but they know that some roads have higher speed limits than others. They will take off further away from an approaching car on a faster road than on a slower road

A newly declassified CIA document confirms the existence of famed Area 51 in Nevada, but conspiracy theorists will be disappointed the spy agency offers no proof of alien spaceship landings in the desert.Area 51 has long been fodder for science fiction films and wild UFO tales claiming the US government imposed secrecy over the site northwest of Las Vegas to cover up evidence of extra-terrestrials touching down on Earth.

Quantum teleportation has taken a great leap forward

Concentrated laser light in the universe may singal the presence of a technological civilizations that might be living on distant planets or in a spacecraft nearby.