Newsdesk Archive
Our addiction to sugar is linked to obesity, cancer and heart disease
Two young children in Pennsylvania were banned from talking about fracking for the rest of their lives under a gag order imposed under a settlement reached by their parents with a leading oil and gas company.The sweeping gag order was imposed under a $750,000 settlement between the Hallowich family and Range Resources Corp, a leading oil and gas driller. It provoked outrage on Monday among environmental campaigners and free speech advocates.
Sharing a secret can forge a relationship and solidify a bond with a friend. Keeping a secret, however, can eat away at our health and happiness. As it turns out, hiding a painful truth also changes the way we communicate with others.By analyzing big data sets such as email logs and Twitter feeds, psychologists are unveiling the subtle, subconscious ways our language reflects our inner thoughts. These shifts in speech can also crop up in the way political leaders communicate with the public. They may even indicate when one of the Boston marathon bombers first decided to carry out his act of violence.
People who are happy but have little-to-no sense of meaning in their lives have the same gene expression patterns as people who are enduring chronic adversity.For at least the last decade, the happiness craze has been building. In the last three months alone, over 1,000 books on happiness were released on Amazon, including Happy Money, Happy-People-Pills For All, and, for those just starting out, Happiness for Beginners.One of the consistent claims of books like these is that happiness is associated with all sorts of good life outcomes, including
The Eiffel Tower has a new rival, five centuries old.For the first time since it was built in the early 1500s, the Tour Saint Jacques, a mysterious stand-alone Gothic tower in the geometric centre of Paris, is opening to the public this summer.The 170ft-high tower, long surrounded by myths and legends, has literary connections ranging from Alexandre Dumas to Marcel Proust. It was used by the writer and scientist Blaise Pascal to experiment with atmospheric pressure and weights a century before Isaac Newton developed his theory of gravity.
The question of why humans invented music
I was 41 and in constant pain. In 2012 I decided to travel to the Amazon to drink Ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic brew used by shamans for hundreds of years. I had read about it, researched it and decided I had to do it. People drank it for physical and emotional well being.
By most standards Matt and Paige Figi were living the American dream. They met at Colorado State University, where they shared a love of the outdoors. After getting married, the couple bought a house and planned to travel the world.They did travel, but their plans changed when their first child was born in 2004.Related:Why I changed my mind on weed, By Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent
We have nothing to fear from the big change that is about to occur on the sun, researchers stress.The sun's magnetic field is set to reverse its polarity in the next few months. But the shift won't spark an increase in powerful solar storms or other events that could have a damaging effect on Earth and its inhabitants, researchers say.
Europa has only been seen from afar, but its aura of intrigue has inspired scientists to study ideas as to how to explore the icy Jovian moon.In a new study published today (Aug. 7), a NASA-appointed science definition team lays out the rich tapestry of discovery facing any mission to study Europa, but what questions do we need answering?.
Archaeologist Anya Shetler cleans an inscription below an ancient stucco frieze recently unearthed in the buried Maya city of Holmul in the Peten region of Guatemala. Sunlight from a tunnel entrance highlights the carved legs of a ruler sitting atop the head of a Maya mountain spirit.
NEW YORK (AP)
ROME -- In a bid to protect its ancient glories from modern perils, Rome is banning cars and motor scooters from the boulevard that slices through the city's ancient forums toward the Colosseum.Traffic police started enforcing the new restrictions at dawn Saturday, diverting private cars and motor scooters to side streets, so they will no longer clog the Via dei Fori Imperiali.
Scientists at Georgia Tech have created a Mona Lisa reproduction about 30 microns wide, or about one-third the width of a human hair.The team also created a few microscopic Ansel Adams landscape reproductions as well, but copyright issues prevented the scientists from sharing those with the rest of us. Although you can find one of them -- a reproduction of a 1932 picture of a rose with driftwood -- in a study about the process that created these images in the journal Langmuir.
When it comes to our sense of smell, we are all experiencing the world in very different ways.Scientists already know that humans' sensitivity to smelly molecules varies considerably from person to person (see: 'Soapy taste of coriander linked to genetic variants'). But evidence that genetic variations
In a first for scientists, a foal of the world's last true wild horse has been born by way of artificial insemination.The birth of a female Przewalski's horse (pronounced "cha-VAL-skee") on July 27 at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) in Virginia was celebrated as a major achievement for the survival of the endangered species, once thought to have been extinct in the wild.
Hey Brits, keep an eye out for this little critter
High-speed cameras have revealed how jumping spiders use a dragline of silk to stabilise themselves mid-air and control their landings.Slow-motion footage revealed the spiders used their silk draglines to stabilise their bodies and to brake, enabling them to land poised and ready to pounce on prey.The discovery, the scientists say, could inspire new robot design.
Every year thousands of them are boiled or torn apart while they are still alive, and now there is strong evidence to suggest that crustaceans experience pain.That was the stark message delivered by Robert Elwood, an animal behaviour researcher at Queen
Our addiction to sugar is linked to obesity, cancer and heart disease
Two young children in Pennsylvania were banned from talking about fracking for the rest of their lives under a gag order imposed under a settlement reached by their parents with a leading oil and gas company.The sweeping gag order was imposed under a $750,000 settlement between the Hallowich family and Range Resources Corp, a leading oil and gas driller. It provoked outrage on Monday among environmental campaigners and free speech advocates.
Sharing a secret can forge a relationship and solidify a bond with a friend. Keeping a secret, however, can eat away at our health and happiness. As it turns out, hiding a painful truth also changes the way we communicate with others.By analyzing big data sets such as email logs and Twitter feeds, psychologists are unveiling the subtle, subconscious ways our language reflects our inner thoughts. These shifts in speech can also crop up in the way political leaders communicate with the public. They may even indicate when one of the Boston marathon bombers first decided to carry out his act of violence.
People who are happy but have little-to-no sense of meaning in their lives have the same gene expression patterns as people who are enduring chronic adversity.For at least the last decade, the happiness craze has been building. In the last three months alone, over 1,000 books on happiness were released on Amazon, including Happy Money, Happy-People-Pills For All, and, for those just starting out, Happiness for Beginners.One of the consistent claims of books like these is that happiness is associated with all sorts of good life outcomes, including
The Eiffel Tower has a new rival, five centuries old.For the first time since it was built in the early 1500s, the Tour Saint Jacques, a mysterious stand-alone Gothic tower in the geometric centre of Paris, is opening to the public this summer.The 170ft-high tower, long surrounded by myths and legends, has literary connections ranging from Alexandre Dumas to Marcel Proust. It was used by the writer and scientist Blaise Pascal to experiment with atmospheric pressure and weights a century before Isaac Newton developed his theory of gravity.
The question of why humans invented music
I was 41 and in constant pain. In 2012 I decided to travel to the Amazon to drink Ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic brew used by shamans for hundreds of years. I had read about it, researched it and decided I had to do it. People drank it for physical and emotional well being.
By most standards Matt and Paige Figi were living the American dream. They met at Colorado State University, where they shared a love of the outdoors. After getting married, the couple bought a house and planned to travel the world.They did travel, but their plans changed when their first child was born in 2004.Related:Why I changed my mind on weed, By Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent
We have nothing to fear from the big change that is about to occur on the sun, researchers stress.The sun's magnetic field is set to reverse its polarity in the next few months. But the shift won't spark an increase in powerful solar storms or other events that could have a damaging effect on Earth and its inhabitants, researchers say.
Europa has only been seen from afar, but its aura of intrigue has inspired scientists to study ideas as to how to explore the icy Jovian moon.In a new study published today (Aug. 7), a NASA-appointed science definition team lays out the rich tapestry of discovery facing any mission to study Europa, but what questions do we need answering?.
Archaeologist Anya Shetler cleans an inscription below an ancient stucco frieze recently unearthed in the buried Maya city of Holmul in the Peten region of Guatemala. Sunlight from a tunnel entrance highlights the carved legs of a ruler sitting atop the head of a Maya mountain spirit.
ROME -- In a bid to protect its ancient glories from modern perils, Rome is banning cars and motor scooters from the boulevard that slices through the city's ancient forums toward the Colosseum.Traffic police started enforcing the new restrictions at dawn Saturday, diverting private cars and motor scooters to side streets, so they will no longer clog the Via dei Fori Imperiali.
Scientists at Georgia Tech have created a Mona Lisa reproduction about 30 microns wide, or about one-third the width of a human hair.The team also created a few microscopic Ansel Adams landscape reproductions as well, but copyright issues prevented the scientists from sharing those with the rest of us. Although you can find one of them -- a reproduction of a 1932 picture of a rose with driftwood -- in a study about the process that created these images in the journal Langmuir.
In a first for scientists, a foal of the world's last true wild horse has been born by way of artificial insemination.The birth of a female Przewalski's horse (pronounced "cha-VAL-skee") on July 27 at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) in Virginia was celebrated as a major achievement for the survival of the endangered species, once thought to have been extinct in the wild.
High-speed cameras have revealed how jumping spiders use a dragline of silk to stabilise themselves mid-air and control their landings.Slow-motion footage revealed the spiders used their silk draglines to stabilise their bodies and to brake, enabling them to land poised and ready to pounce on prey.The discovery, the scientists say, could inspire new robot design.
Two young children in Pennsylvania were banned from talking about fracking for the rest of their lives under a gag order imposed under a settlement reached by their parents with a leading oil and gas company.The sweeping gag order was imposed under a $750,000 settlement between the Hallowich family and Range Resources Corp, a leading oil and gas driller. It provoked outrage on Monday among environmental campaigners and free speech advocates.
Sharing a secret can forge a relationship and solidify a bond with a friend. Keeping a secret, however, can eat away at our health and happiness. As it turns out, hiding a painful truth also changes the way we communicate with others.By analyzing big data sets such as email logs and Twitter feeds, psychologists are unveiling the subtle, subconscious ways our language reflects our inner thoughts. These shifts in speech can also crop up in the way political leaders communicate with the public. They may even indicate when one of the Boston marathon bombers first decided to carry out his act of violence.
The Eiffel Tower has a new rival, five centuries old.For the first time since it was built in the early 1500s, the Tour Saint Jacques, a mysterious stand-alone Gothic tower in the geometric centre of Paris, is opening to the public this summer.The 170ft-high tower, long surrounded by myths and legends, has literary connections ranging from Alexandre Dumas to Marcel Proust. It was used by the writer and scientist Blaise Pascal to experiment with atmospheric pressure and weights a century before Isaac Newton developed his theory of gravity.
I was 41 and in constant pain. In 2012 I decided to travel to the Amazon to drink Ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic brew used by shamans for hundreds of years. I had read about it, researched it and decided I had to do it. People drank it for physical and emotional well being.
By most standards Matt and Paige Figi were living the American dream. They met at Colorado State University, where they shared a love of the outdoors. After getting married, the couple bought a house and planned to travel the world.They did travel, but their plans changed when their first child was born in 2004.Related:Why I changed my mind on weed, By Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent
We have nothing to fear from the big change that is about to occur on the sun, researchers stress.The sun's magnetic field is set to reverse its polarity in the next few months. But the shift won't spark an increase in powerful solar storms or other events that could have a damaging effect on Earth and its inhabitants, researchers say.
Europa has only been seen from afar, but its aura of intrigue has inspired scientists to study ideas as to how to explore the icy Jovian moon.In a new study published today (Aug. 7), a NASA-appointed science definition team lays out the rich tapestry of discovery facing any mission to study Europa, but what questions do we need answering?.
It's like a vision of the space age, carved out of the jungle: Thousands of glassy panels surrounded by a lush canopy of green stretch as far as the eye can see, reflecting the few clouds that dot the sky on a scorching Caribbean morning.Cuba's first solar farm opened this spring with little fanfare and no prior announcement. It boasts 14,000 photovoltaic panels which in a stroke more than doubled the country's capacity to harvest energy from the sun.
Debate over the plausibility of a catastrophic release of methane in coming decades due to thawing Arctic permafrost has escalated after a new Nature paper warned that exactly this scenario could trigger costs equivalent to the annual GDP of the global economy.Scientists of different persuasions remain fundamentally divided over whether such a scenario is even plausible. Carolyn Rupple of the US Geological Survey (USGS) Gas Hydrates Project told NBC News the scenario is "nearly impossible.".
As temperatures go up, bison get smaller. Joseph Craine, research assistant professor in the Division of Biology at Kansas State University, examined how climate change during the next 50 years will affect grazing animals such as bison and cattle in the Great Plains. The study, "Long-term climate sensitivity of grazer performance: a cross-site study," was recently published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal PLOS ONE.
Billions of tiny plastic beads are polluting the Great Lakes, and a U.S. scientist has traced them to grooming products such as facial scrubs and toothpastes that are washed daily down our bathroom drains.Marcus Eriksen, research director of the 5 Gyres Institute, had spent several years studying microplastics
Japan's nuclear watchdog has said the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is facing a new "emergency" caused by a build-up of radioactive groundwater.A barrier built to contain the water has already been breached, the Nuclear Regulatory Authority warned.This means the amount of contaminated water seeping into the Pacific Ocean could accelerate rapidly, it said.
Dolphins are able to remember one another's signature calls for at least 20 years making it the longest memory for "faces" among animals - perhaps even surpassing the ability of people to remember one another from their appearances alone.Every dolphin has a unique whistle which is used as a signature call and stays with them unchanged throughout life. These identifying noises are even more reliable than the facial features used by people to recognise each other, which notoriously change over time.
The shark has been named in Latin as Diablodontus michaeledmundi - or "Devil Tooth". It represents a new extinct genus and species.Living about 260 million years ago, the shark survived the Permian-Triassic extinction event - a point in history 252 million years ago known as "The Great Dying," where 96 per cent of life was wiped out.
Waters off of France and the U.K. were once teeming with sharks, many of which would have looked like today's range of shark species.Samples of Late Cretaceous rock from the region turned up remains of 96 different types of prehistoric sharks, 18 of which represent new species, a paper in the Journal of Systematic Paleontology reports.
Every now and then I
Two fossils have got palaeontologists scratching their heads about where to place an enigmatic group of animals in the mammalian family tree. A team analysing one fossil suggests that the group belongs in mammals, but researchers looking at the other propose that its evolutionary clan actually predates true mammals. The situation begs for more analysis, more fossils, or both, experts say.
Scientists at the University of East Anglia have shown that sequencing the DNA of crushed up creepy crawlies can accelerate the monitoring and cataloguing of biodiversity around the world.Research published today in the journal Ecology Letters shows that a process known as 'metabarcoding' is much faster than and just as reliable as standard biodiversity datasets assembled with traditional labour-intensive methods.
Investigators are on the verge of solving the last of the Boston Strangler killings of the 1960s, thanks to new DNA tests and a sample secretly collected from a relative of longtime suspect Albert DeSalvo.DNA taken from a water bottle thrown away by one of DeSalvo's nephews is a "familial match" with genetic material preserved in the January 1964 killing of 19-year-old Mary Sullivan, Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley said Thursday.
A mummified head said to be that of a South Sea island chief is to be sent back to New Zealand after more than 150 years in the UK.The Maori head, or toi moko, was brought to Britain in the 1840s and kept at Warrington Museum in Cheshire.The museum announced it was sending the head back to its motherland due to its "great cultural importance".
A mining company has been convicted of desecrating an Aboriginal site in Australia's Northern Territory.Mining firm OM Manganese was found guilty on Friday - the first time a company has been successfully prosecuted in Australia for desecration of a sacred site.The site is known as Two Women Sitting Down and is at Bootu Creek, north of Tennant Creek.
Egypt's cultural heritage is in danger. Grave robbers, sometimes heavily armed, are taking advantage of political chaos to plunder its poorly guarded archaeological sites. Authorities feel powerless to stop them and fear that ancient treasures might be lost forever.A few hundred meters from the pyramids of Dahshur, the sandy-brown earth is full of holes.Related: Unchecked looting guts Egypt
You've heard of Plymouth, England, but what about Harwich? The small town is looking to finally get some recognition as the actual launch site of the Mayflower.As the argument goes, Plymouth, which has long touted itself as the Pilgrim ship's final port of call before crossing the Atlantic Ocean, was actually an unplanned stop.
The wild swings in weather that are expected to become commonplace as the planet gets warmer
It's like a vision of the space age, carved out of the jungle: Thousands of glassy panels surrounded by a lush canopy of green stretch as far as the eye can see, reflecting the few clouds that dot the sky on a scorching Caribbean morning.Cuba's first solar farm opened this spring with little fanfare and no prior announcement. It boasts 14,000 photovoltaic panels which in a stroke more than doubled the country's capacity to harvest energy from the sun.
Debate over the plausibility of a catastrophic release of methane in coming decades due to thawing Arctic permafrost has escalated after a new Nature paper warned that exactly this scenario could trigger costs equivalent to the annual GDP of the global economy.Scientists of different persuasions remain fundamentally divided over whether such a scenario is even plausible. Carolyn Rupple of the US Geological Survey (USGS) Gas Hydrates Project told NBC News the scenario is "nearly impossible.".
As temperatures go up, bison get smaller. Joseph Craine, research assistant professor in the Division of Biology at Kansas State University, examined how climate change during the next 50 years will affect grazing animals such as bison and cattle in the Great Plains. The study, "Long-term climate sensitivity of grazer performance: a cross-site study," was recently published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal PLOS ONE.
Billions of tiny plastic beads are polluting the Great Lakes, and a U.S. scientist has traced them to grooming products such as facial scrubs and toothpastes that are washed daily down our bathroom drains.Marcus Eriksen, research director of the 5 Gyres Institute, had spent several years studying microplastics
Japan's nuclear watchdog has said the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is facing a new "emergency" caused by a build-up of radioactive groundwater.A barrier built to contain the water has already been breached, the Nuclear Regulatory Authority warned.This means the amount of contaminated water seeping into the Pacific Ocean could accelerate rapidly, it said.
Dolphins are able to remember one another's signature calls for at least 20 years making it the longest memory for "faces" among animals - perhaps even surpassing the ability of people to remember one another from their appearances alone.Every dolphin has a unique whistle which is used as a signature call and stays with them unchanged throughout life. These identifying noises are even more reliable than the facial features used by people to recognise each other, which notoriously change over time.
The shark has been named in Latin as Diablodontus michaeledmundi - or "Devil Tooth". It represents a new extinct genus and species.Living about 260 million years ago, the shark survived the Permian-Triassic extinction event - a point in history 252 million years ago known as "The Great Dying," where 96 per cent of life was wiped out.
Waters off of France and the U.K. were once teeming with sharks, many of which would have looked like today's range of shark species.Samples of Late Cretaceous rock from the region turned up remains of 96 different types of prehistoric sharks, 18 of which represent new species, a paper in the Journal of Systematic Paleontology reports.
Every now and then I
Two fossils have got palaeontologists scratching their heads about where to place an enigmatic group of animals in the mammalian family tree. A team analysing one fossil suggests that the group belongs in mammals, but researchers looking at the other propose that its evolutionary clan actually predates true mammals. The situation begs for more analysis, more fossils, or both, experts say.
Scientists at the University of East Anglia have shown that sequencing the DNA of crushed up creepy crawlies can accelerate the monitoring and cataloguing of biodiversity around the world.Research published today in the journal Ecology Letters shows that a process known as 'metabarcoding' is much faster than and just as reliable as standard biodiversity datasets assembled with traditional labour-intensive methods.
Investigators are on the verge of solving the last of the Boston Strangler killings of the 1960s, thanks to new DNA tests and a sample secretly collected from a relative of longtime suspect Albert DeSalvo.DNA taken from a water bottle thrown away by one of DeSalvo's nephews is a "familial match" with genetic material preserved in the January 1964 killing of 19-year-old Mary Sullivan, Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley said Thursday.
A mummified head said to be that of a South Sea island chief is to be sent back to New Zealand after more than 150 years in the UK.The Maori head, or toi moko, was brought to Britain in the 1840s and kept at Warrington Museum in Cheshire.The museum announced it was sending the head back to its motherland due to its "great cultural importance".
A mining company has been convicted of desecrating an Aboriginal site in Australia's Northern Territory.Mining firm OM Manganese was found guilty on Friday - the first time a company has been successfully prosecuted in Australia for desecration of a sacred site.The site is known as Two Women Sitting Down and is at Bootu Creek, north of Tennant Creek.
Egypt's cultural heritage is in danger. Grave robbers, sometimes heavily armed, are taking advantage of political chaos to plunder its poorly guarded archaeological sites. Authorities feel powerless to stop them and fear that ancient treasures might be lost forever.A few hundred meters from the pyramids of Dahshur, the sandy-brown earth is full of holes.Related: Unchecked looting guts Egypt
You've heard of Plymouth, England, but what about Harwich? The small town is looking to finally get some recognition as the actual launch site of the Mayflower.As the argument goes, Plymouth, which has long touted itself as the Pilgrim ship's final port of call before crossing the Atlantic Ocean, was actually an unplanned stop.
The wild swings in weather that are expected to become commonplace as the planet gets warmer
It's like a vision of the space age, carved out of the jungle: Thousands of glassy panels surrounded by a lush canopy of green stretch as far as the eye can see, reflecting the few clouds that dot the sky on a scorching Caribbean morning.Cuba's first solar farm opened this spring with little fanfare and no prior announcement. It boasts 14,000 photovoltaic panels which in a stroke more than doubled the country's capacity to harvest energy from the sun.
Debate over the plausibility of a catastrophic release of methane in coming decades due to thawing Arctic permafrost has escalated after a new Nature paper warned that exactly this scenario could trigger costs equivalent to the annual GDP of the global economy.Scientists of different persuasions remain fundamentally divided over whether such a scenario is even plausible. Carolyn Rupple of the US Geological Survey (USGS) Gas Hydrates Project told NBC News the scenario is "nearly impossible.".
As temperatures go up, bison get smaller. Joseph Craine, research assistant professor in the Division of Biology at Kansas State University, examined how climate change during the next 50 years will affect grazing animals such as bison and cattle in the Great Plains. The study, "Long-term climate sensitivity of grazer performance: a cross-site study," was recently published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal PLOS ONE.
Billions of tiny plastic beads are polluting the Great Lakes, and a U.S. scientist has traced them to grooming products such as facial scrubs and toothpastes that are washed daily down our bathroom drains.Marcus Eriksen, research director of the 5 Gyres Institute, had spent several years studying microplastics
Japan's nuclear watchdog has said the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is facing a new "emergency" caused by a build-up of radioactive groundwater.A barrier built to contain the water has already been breached, the Nuclear Regulatory Authority warned.This means the amount of contaminated water seeping into the Pacific Ocean could accelerate rapidly, it said.
Dolphins are able to remember one another's signature calls for at least 20 years making it the longest memory for "faces" among animals - perhaps even surpassing the ability of people to remember one another from their appearances alone.Every dolphin has a unique whistle which is used as a signature call and stays with them unchanged throughout life. These identifying noises are even more reliable than the facial features used by people to recognise each other, which notoriously change over time.
The shark has been named in Latin as Diablodontus michaeledmundi - or "Devil Tooth". It represents a new extinct genus and species.Living about 260 million years ago, the shark survived the Permian-Triassic extinction event - a point in history 252 million years ago known as "The Great Dying," where 96 per cent of life was wiped out.
Waters off of France and the U.K. were once teeming with sharks, many of which would have looked like today's range of shark species.Samples of Late Cretaceous rock from the region turned up remains of 96 different types of prehistoric sharks, 18 of which represent new species, a paper in the Journal of Systematic Paleontology reports.
Every now and then I
Two fossils have got palaeontologists scratching their heads about where to place an enigmatic group of animals in the mammalian family tree. A team analysing one fossil suggests that the group belongs in mammals, but researchers looking at the other propose that its evolutionary clan actually predates true mammals. The situation begs for more analysis, more fossils, or both, experts say.
Scientists at the University of East Anglia have shown that sequencing the DNA of crushed up creepy crawlies can accelerate the monitoring and cataloguing of biodiversity around the world.Research published today in the journal Ecology Letters shows that a process known as 'metabarcoding' is much faster than and just as reliable as standard biodiversity datasets assembled with traditional labour-intensive methods.
Investigators are on the verge of solving the last of the Boston Strangler killings of the 1960s, thanks to new DNA tests and a sample secretly collected from a relative of longtime suspect Albert DeSalvo.DNA taken from a water bottle thrown away by one of DeSalvo's nephews is a "familial match" with genetic material preserved in the January 1964 killing of 19-year-old Mary Sullivan, Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley said Thursday.
A mummified head said to be that of a South Sea island chief is to be sent back to New Zealand after more than 150 years in the UK.The Maori head, or toi moko, was brought to Britain in the 1840s and kept at Warrington Museum in Cheshire.The museum announced it was sending the head back to its motherland due to its "great cultural importance".
A mining company has been convicted of desecrating an Aboriginal site in Australia's Northern Territory.Mining firm OM Manganese was found guilty on Friday - the first time a company has been successfully prosecuted in Australia for desecration of a sacred site.The site is known as Two Women Sitting Down and is at Bootu Creek, north of Tennant Creek.
Egypt's cultural heritage is in danger. Grave robbers, sometimes heavily armed, are taking advantage of political chaos to plunder its poorly guarded archaeological sites. Authorities feel powerless to stop them and fear that ancient treasures might be lost forever.A few hundred meters from the pyramids of Dahshur, the sandy-brown earth is full of holes.Related: Unchecked looting guts Egypt
You've heard of Plymouth, England, but what about Harwich? The small town is looking to finally get some recognition as the actual launch site of the Mayflower.As the argument goes, Plymouth, which has long touted itself as the Pilgrim ship's final port of call before crossing the Atlantic Ocean, was actually an unplanned stop.
The wild swings in weather that are expected to become commonplace as the planet gets warmer
It's like a vision of the space age, carved out of the jungle: Thousands of glassy panels surrounded by a lush canopy of green stretch as far as the eye can see, reflecting the few clouds that dot the sky on a scorching Caribbean morning.Cuba's first solar farm opened this spring with little fanfare and no prior announcement. It boasts 14,000 photovoltaic panels which in a stroke more than doubled the country's capacity to harvest energy from the sun.
Debate over the plausibility of a catastrophic release of methane in coming decades due to thawing Arctic permafrost has escalated after a new Nature paper warned that exactly this scenario could trigger costs equivalent to the annual GDP of the global economy.Scientists of different persuasions remain fundamentally divided over whether such a scenario is even plausible. Carolyn Rupple of the US Geological Survey (USGS) Gas Hydrates Project told NBC News the scenario is "nearly impossible.".
As temperatures go up, bison get smaller. Joseph Craine, research assistant professor in the Division of Biology at Kansas State University, examined how climate change during the next 50 years will affect grazing animals such as bison and cattle in the Great Plains. The study, "Long-term climate sensitivity of grazer performance: a cross-site study," was recently published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal PLOS ONE.
Japan's nuclear watchdog has said the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is facing a new "emergency" caused by a build-up of radioactive groundwater.A barrier built to contain the water has already been breached, the Nuclear Regulatory Authority warned.This means the amount of contaminated water seeping into the Pacific Ocean could accelerate rapidly, it said.
Dolphins are able to remember one another's signature calls for at least 20 years making it the longest memory for "faces" among animals - perhaps even surpassing the ability of people to remember one another from their appearances alone.Every dolphin has a unique whistle which is used as a signature call and stays with them unchanged throughout life. These identifying noises are even more reliable than the facial features used by people to recognise each other, which notoriously change over time.