Newsdesk Archive

Rogue fossil hunters have been banned from Dorset's Jurassic Coastline after two court injunctions were secured.The National Trust and Charmouth council won the first order banning a Somerset man extracting fossils out of cliffs over fears of falling rocks.A second injunction was also made by Taunton County Court banning "unknown persons" from digging in the area.The trust said fossils could still be collected from the beach but the orders would help stop coastline damage.

Scientists have found the first evidence that tyrannosaur dinosaurs - relatives of the famous T. rex - existed in the southern hemisphere.Previously, tyrannosaurs had only been known from fossil finds in northern continents, the team of researchers write in Science journal.Now, a hip bone found in Australia has been identified as belonging to a southern relative of T. rex.It came from an animal about 3m (9ft) long and weighing around 80kg (176lb).

Plans to more precisely plot the orbit of an asteroid with a small chance of hitting Earth in 2036 may be badly hit by funding cuts to a US radar facility.Radar measurements set to be made in January 2013 by the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, US, could help rule out an impact by asteroid Apophis.But the cuts mean Arecibo needs an extra $2m-$3m a year to continue.

(NaturalNews) A combination of toxic chemicals and pathogens are probably to blame for colony collapse disorder in honeybees, according to a study conducted by researchers at Washington State University.Researchers conducted careful studies to uncover contributors to the disorder, in which seemingly healthy bees simply vanish from a hive, leaving the queen and a handful of newly hatched adults behind.

A mysterious species of ancient human has been discovered in a cave in southern Siberia.Nicknamed X-Woman, scientists say the human lived alongside our ancestors tens of thousands of years ago.The discovery, which could rewrite mankind's family tree, was made after analysis of DNA from a fossilised finger bone.

The end-Ordovician mass extinction was caused by a major ice age and wiped out 85 per cent of marine life, 445 million years ago. Now scientists are using the carbon and osmium composition of shale rocks to find out more about this glaciation and why was it responsible for the extinction.Although not as famous as the disaster that spelled the end of the dinosaurs, the end-Ordovician event was one of the world's biggest mass extinctions.

During the years Salman Khan spent scrutinizing financials for hedge funds, he rationalized the profit-obsessed work by telling himself he would one day quit and use his market winnings to open a free school.Instead, he started one almost by accident.It began with long-distance tutoring in late 2004. He agreed to help his niece Nadia, then a seventh-grader struggling with unit conversion, by providing math lessons over Yahoo's interactive notepad, Doodle, and the phone.

How would you like an urban two-seater, two-wheeled electric vehicle that navigates on its own through traffic or takes you home late at night after one too many rounds at the bar? That's the concept behind the Electric Networked-Vehicle (EN-V) unveiled yesterday by General Motors in Shanghai, China.

While some scientists resort to undersea drilling to find undiscovered forms of life, a new group of researchers has decided that piloting a robotic submarine into a submerged volcano was the way to go. By exploring the deepest, hottest, undersea volcano ever probed, the researchers hope to find clues to both the beginnings of life on Earth, and the possible forms of life on other planets.

One squat multitasking robot can build semiconductors for solar cells on six-inch-square plates of glass, plastic or flexible metals in just over half an hour. Six of these tireless mechanical workers, chugging away at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Colorado, will allow private companies to come rapidly prototype and test their newest formulas for creating solar cells.

Warships are limited in their ability to patrol vast areas of ocean against pirates, but a modular, self-assembling floating platform delivered by cargo ships could provide a cheaper naval base for military forces. The futuristic twist on a heritage technology comes from none other than the Pentagon's DARPA, The Register reports.The Tactically Expandable Maritime Platform (TEMP) would turn the standard ISO containers carried by cargo ships into modules that each serve a specific purpose, such as living quarters, command cells, comm shacks, or weapons stations.

NASA's Opportunity Rover, now in its seventh year of roaming the Martian surface, just got a little smarter. Like parents giving their growing child a little more autonomy, engineers updated Opportunity with artificial intelligence software this past winter that allows the rover to make its own decisions about where to stop and which rocks to analyze during its travels. Now the first images of Opportunity picking and choosing where to investigate have been released.Researchers at NASA hope the upgrade will prove a good trial experience regarding how future planetary probes and rovers could do more of their own thinking in the future.

Washington, March 25 (ANI): A new study has suggested that an unknown type of human, nicknamed "X-Woman," coexisted with Neanderthals and our own species between 30,000 to 50,000 years ago.According to a report in Discovery News, the as-of-yet-unnamed new human species represents the first time that a hominid has been described not from the structure of its fossilized bones, but from the sequence of its DNA.

Photosynthesis is the mechanism by which plants generate oxygen, but new research on a novel type of anaerobic bacteria supports the theory that bacteria produced their own oxygen long before the evolution of photosynthesis.

Look close. You may be staring at the end of cancer. Those tiny black dots are nanobots delivering a lethal blow to a cancerous cell, effectively killing it. The first trial on humans have been a success, with no side-effects:It sneaks in, evades the immune system, delivers the siRNA, and the disassembled components exit out.Those are the words of Mark Davis, head of the research team that created the nanobot anti-cancer army at the California Institute of Technology. According to a study to be published in Nature, Davis' team has discovered a clean, safe way to deliver RNAi sequences to cancerous cells. RNAi (Ribonucleic acid interference) is a technique that attacks specific genes in malign cells, disabling functions inside and killing them.

Moons may bow to planets in terms of size, but in character they often outshine their stolid parents. The named moons of the solar system outnumber planets by more than 20 to 1, and they display a remarkable diversity. There are fully fledged worlds such as Titan, as complex as any planet. There are possible havens for life, such as the ice-crusted water world Europa. New mysteries surround even the smallest satellites, most recently the apparent flying saucers orbiting Saturn.This year it will be four centuries since Galileo discovered Jupiter's four large satellites, at a stroke quintupling the number of moons then known to humanity.Join Stephen Battersby for a tour of some of the most frigid, violent and downright strange worlds we have discovered since then.

The trouble started when Raj Patel appeared on American TV to plug his latest book, an analysis of the financial crisis called The Value of Nothing.The London-born author, 37, thought his slot on comedy talkshow The Colbert Report went well enough: the host made a few jokes, Patel talked a little about his work and then, job done, he went back to his home in San Francisco.Shortly afterwards, however, things took a strange turn.

Nutrition experts have analyzed the food depicted in some of the best-known paintings of the biblical Last Supper and found that the portion and plate sizes depicted in them increased substantially from older paintings to those painted more recently.

A German court sentenced an 88-year-old former Nazi soldier to life in prison Tuesday for the killing of three civilians in World War II, a spokesman for the Aachen State Court said.

The U-2 spy plane, the high-flying aircraft that was often at the heart of cold war suspense, is enjoying an encore.Four years ago, the Pentagon was ready to start retiring the plane, which took its first test flight in 1955. But Congress blocked that, saying the plane was still useful.

More than 200 million years ago, as North Africa was ripping away from North America, opening up the Atlantic Ocean, hot lava poured out from Earth's surface. The lava, enough to more than cover the United States, created inhospitable conditions for most life ... except the dinosaurs.And new geologic discoveries suggest this climate catastrophe was the ticket for the dinosaur's rise to rule.

A Belgian, two Frenchmen and a Colombian-Italian have agreed to be locked away in steel containers for 18 months to simulate a mission to Mars.Their self-imposed exile will test the physical and mental requirements of ultra-long duration spaceflight.The Europeans will join a predominantly Russian crew for the Mars500 project, which is due to start in May.All the food and water needed for the "journey" will have to be loaded into the "spacecraft" before "departure".

The new UK Space Agency (UKSA) will take over responsibility for government policy and the key budgets for space, according to ministers.The agency, which comes into being on 1 April, will also represent Britain on space matters in all negotiations with international partners.The UKSA's name, logo and remit were announced at a conference in London.Its establishment should bring more coherence to space policy - something critics say has been missing for years.

Since the surprise discovery last year of trace amounts of water on the moon, scientists have been redefining their concept of Earth's rocky neighbor. Now researchers say the water on the moon comes in three different flavors.Until recently the moon was thought to be bone dry. But measurements in the last year from the Mini-SAR and Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3 or "M-cubed") instruments on India's Chandrayaan-1 moon probe and from NASA's recent LCROSS mission have proved that wrong.

The nearly 20-foot high series of granite slabs known as the Georgia Guidestones are inscribed with a series of admonitions for a future "Age of Reason.".

A letter written by Adolf Hitler in 1931 hoping for a "truly cordial relationship" between Britain and Germany goes on sale Tuesday and is estimated to fetch up to £12,000 at auction.The one-page letter was addressed to Sefton Delmer, a British journalist, in which Hitler expressed hopes of a new friendship between the two countries to replace the "unhappy war-psychosis" that existed after the First World War:Hitler wrote the letter 16 months before he became chancellor and seized power in 1933.

Acupuncture has long baffled medical experts and no wonder: It holds that an invisible life force called qi (pronounced chee) travels up and down the body in 14 meridians. Illness and pain are due to blockages and imbalances in qi. Inserting thin needles into the body at precise points can unblock the meridians, practitioners believe, and treat everything from arthritis and asthma to anxiety, acne and infertility.

Japanese historians have agreed to scrap a theory regarding their country's occupation of ancient Korean kingdoms, a joint research committee announced Tuesday.The consensus was reached during an examination of historical records conducted by the Seoul-Tokyo Committee.

A team of scientists has uncovered an ancient water flea-like creature from 425 million years ago, which is only the third of its kind ever to be discovered in ancient rocks.

AHMEDABAD: A large quantity of seals and beads used in making jewellery during the Harappan civilisation were recently found at Kanmer near Bhachau. The archaeology experts in the state were elated as the discovery proved that Kutch region those days had a production capacity and also a trade link with other parts of India and world, like Himalayan regions and parts of Pakistan, where similar beads have been found.

It's been a long time since a Pentagon project from the DARPA labs truly evoked a "WTF DARPA?!" response, but our collective jaw dropped when we saw the details on a project known as BioDesign. DARPA hopes to dispense with evolutionary randomness and assemble biological creatures, genetically programmed to live indefinitely and presumably do whatever their human masters want. And, Wired's Danger Room reports, when there's the inevitable problem of said creatures going haywire or realizing that they're intelligent and have feelings, there's a planned self-destruct genetic code that could be triggered.

It is every dieter's dream: mouthwatering chocolate, cakes and biscuits that help the weight drop off.And these mythical treats could soon be on their way to your plate, thanks to a breakthrough by British scientists.Newcastle University experts have discovered that a fibre found in seaweed is more effective than most weight loss supplements in stopping the body from absorbing fat from food - and even enhances flavour.

More than three million years ago, the ancestors of modern humans were still spending a considerable amount of their lives in trees, but something new was happening.David Raichlen, an assistant professor in the University of Arizona School of Anthropology, and his colleagues at the University at Albany and City University of New York's Lehman College have developed new experimental evidence indicating that these early hominins were walking with a human-like striding gait as long as 3.6 million years ago.

Scientists have found a massive galaxy in the early Universe creating stars like our sun up to 100 times faster than the modern-day Milky Way.The team of international researchers, led by Durham University, described the finding as like seeing "a teenager going through a growth spurt".Due to the amount of time it takes light to reach Earth the scientists observed the galaxy as it would have appeared 10 billion years ago - just three billion years after the Big Bang.

Scientists said on Sunday they had made a nanotech device to strip salt from seawater, paving the way to small-scale or even battery-powered desalination for drought-hit regions and disaster zones.The tiny prototype is reported on the eve of the UN's World Water Day, which aims to highlight the worsening problems of access to clean water.Conventional desalination works by forcing water through a membrane to remove molecules of salt.

In Wari-Bateshwar of Narsingdi, archaeologists have recently excavated a 1,400-year-old Lotus Temple, the first proof of flourishing of Buddhism in the region.The brick-built temple constructed around seventh or eighth century--as evidenced by its structure and the size and shapes of the bricks and other finds excavated at Mandirvita at Dhupirtek of Shibpur in the district--suggests existence of a Buddha Vihara there, they said.

Rich historical artifacts dating back to 3,000 years have been unearthed from the Jajmau mound on the bank of the Ganga in Kanpur where archaeologists belonging to Uttar Pradesh State Archaeology Department (UPSAD) have been doing excavation work for the last two and half years.Evidences of ancient and medieval India, including Pre-Mauryan, Mauryan and Kushana periods, have been found and the archaeologists are confident that further excavation at the site can help in collecting the remains of a 4,000 year-old civilization.

We knew the folks at NASA had brains and courage, but who knew they had a sense of humor, too? Turns out the National Aeronautics and Space Administration celebrates every mission that gets sent out into space with its own poster, and some of them are amazing!.

A new replica of an early modern human brain has provided further evidence for the theory that the human brain has been shrinking. The skull belonged to an elderly Cro Magnon man, whose skeleton is called Cro Magnon 1. The entire skeleton was discovered in 1868 in the Cro Magnon cave in Dordogne, France, and has since become one of the most famous Upper Palaeolithic skeletons. Using new technology, researchers have produced a replica of the 28,000-year-old brain and found that it is about 15-20% larger than our brains.

When snow falls on this downtown of brick buildings and glass storefronts in southern Oregon, it piles up everywhere but the sidewalks. It's the first sign that this timber and ranching town is like few others.

The big bang was the beginning of the universe as we know it, most scientists say. But was it the first beginning, and will it be the last?A popular picture of the early universe imagines a single big bang, after which space blew up quickly like a giant bubble. But another theory posits that we live in a universe of 11 dimensions, where all particles are actually made of tiny vibrating strings. This could create a universe stuck in a cycle of big bangs and big crunches, due to repeat on loop.

From Carlos Tanner, an Ayahuasca shaman in training live from the Peruvian Amazon:I have just returned back to Iquitos with students from the advanced 6 week retreat which is now winding down. It has been an excellent course with Don Enrique passionately and masterfully guiding us all through the traditional Shipibo diet and ceremonies.As I have been in the jungle for some time I wanted to host a Webcast this Sunday in order to speak at length about this retreat as well as the initiation retreats to give you a better idea as to what they entail.This will also be a Q&A so if you have any questions you would like to ask me about any of these programs then please send those in to me. Just type them in to the questions submission box which you will find on the Webinar event page.Here are the details for the Webcast and Live Q&A:EVENT: Initiation Course ReviewDATE & TIME: Sunday, March 21st at 2:00pm EasternFORMAT: Simulcast! (Attend via Phone or Webcast -- it's your choice)

Stem cell medicine is now moving so fast, that the only thing holding it up this week was the London traffic.

A new species of dinosaur with scythe-like claws and bad family connections has been discovered in China.British student scientist Mich-ael Pittman and an American colleague stumbled on the near-complete fossil skeleton of Linheraptor exquisitus during a field trip to Inner Mongolia.

A late-Medieval crucifix found in Gloucestershire has been declared treasure by a coroner.The 500-year-old silver pendant was discovered by a man in Yanworth, near Cirencester, in June 2009.It depicts Christ on the front flanked by the Virgin Mary and John the Evangelist and on the reverse, St Christopher carrying the Christ Child.

Using bees to sting patients has been proven to be an effective therapy in curing bone and joint diseases, along with other ailments.The ancient therapy is gaining popularity at a traditional Chinese medical clinic in Beijing.Doctors at the clinic take tweezers to pick up each bee and then place them on the acupoint of the suffering joint. Each bee stings, dies and is then discarded. The sting with its poison are left in the body for several hours.

FOR four millennia their secrets lay hidden beneath the desert sands, the final resting place of a mysterious civilisation. And since their discovery in 1934, the Tarim mummies in China have perplexed historians and archaeologists.But a remarkable new study has found that the origins of the inhabitants of the ancient graveyard in the Taklimakan desert north of Tibet lie in Europe.

The turritopsis nutricula species of jellyfish may be the only animal in the world to have truly discovered the fountain of youth.Since it is capable of cycling from a mature adult stage to an immature polyp stage and back again, there may be no natural limit to its life span. Scientists say the hydrozoan jellyfish is the only known animal that can repeatedly turn back the hands of time and revert to its polyp state (its first stage of life).

For a brief instant, it appears, scientists at Brook­haven National Laboratory on Long Island recently discovered a law of nature had been broken.For a brief instant, it appears, scientists at Brook haven National Laboratory on Long Island recently discovered a law of nature had been broken.

Flores, the Indonesian island where skeletal remains of famous "hobbit hominids" were found in 2003, was colonised by humans much earlier than thought, scientists said on Wednesday.Humans settled in Flores around a million years ago, at least 120,000 years sooner than previously estimated, they reported in the journal Nature.Flores leapt into the headlines seven years ago when archaeologists found the skeletal remains of tiny humans who measured only a metre (3.25 feet) in height, weighed just 30 kilos (65 pounds) and had the brain the size of a chimp's.

According to current astronomical models, the Milky Way and other large galaxies formed over billions of years in a process that involved interactions between smaller galaxies, and in particular the gradual capture of many stars from nearby dwarf galaxies (small galaxies with hundreds or thousands of times fewer stars than the Milky Way).

Scientists have discovered a new species of dinosaur that was closely related to the Velociraptor.The 1.8m-long predator was a dromaeosaurid - a family of theropod dinosaurs from which modern birds descended.

US researchers using genetically engineered fruit flies with glowing sperm have tracked the seed's progress inside the female, in real time.By making the fly's sperm glow green or red, researchers from Syracuse University are able to see previously unobservable events unfold.Competition between sperm is a key component of sexual selection.The researchers hope their findings will also offer new insights into human reproductive biology.

We may take ours for granted, but atmospheres are responsible for creating some of the wonders of the Solar System.The flimsy, thin blue line seen from space that surrounds Earth makes it a wonderfully diverse place.Our atmosphere's unique chemical formula supplies us with the air we breathe, the water that bathes us and provides a soothing blanket that keeps us protected from the violence of space.And where there are other atmospheres, there are other wonders.

Scientists have created the first device to render an object invisible in three dimensions.The "cloak", described in the journal Science, hid an object from detection using light of wavelengths close to those that are visible to humans.Previous devices have been able to hide objects from light travelling in only one direction; viewed from any other angle, the object would remain visible.

I mentioned last week that Graham Hancock's novel Entangled would be released in the UK on April 1 (pre-order now from Amazon UK), as well as posting video of Graham reading from the first chapter. [Graham Hancock Entangled] With the book including topics such as time travel, altered states of consciousness and near-death experiences, there's no doubt that this is the type of fiction that TDG readers will enjoy. In fact, Graham has always been a wonderful supporter of The Daily Grail, and just to prove it he's been kind enough to offer two signed copies of his new book as prizes for a couple of lucky Grailers.So how you enter? Simple - email me with the answer to this question, which can be found by reading through the first four chapters from Entangled which have been posted on the Random House website.

Entangled will be published in about 10 days but meanwhile the UK publishers, Random House, have put Chapters 1 through 4 online. Take a look (the zoom controls are in the bottom right corner for those who might miss them).Entangled is available from Random House with a 40% discount on preorders. Click here to order. (Enter ENTANGLED as promo code for 40% discount)

It is 1,500 light-years from Earth but CoRoT-9b is the first temperate planet found known to be similar to those within our own Solar System.The presence of CoRoT-9b was detected by a space mission designed to find planets we cannot see from the ground."It is the size of Jupiter and has an orbit similar to Mercury," said lead researcher Dr Hans Deeg.In the journal Nature, the scientists say it is the first planet of its type which can yield detailed information.

The turritopsis nutricula species of jellyfish may be the only animal in the world to have truly discovered the fountain of youth.Since it is capable of cycling from a mature adult stage to an immature polyp stage and back again, there may be no natural limit to its life span. Scientists say the hydrozoan jellyfish is the only known animal that can repeatedly turn back the hands of time and revert to its polyp state (its first stage of life).The key lies in a process called transdifferentiation, where one type of cell is transformed into another type of cell. Some animals can undergo limited transdifferentiation and regenerate organs, such as salamanders, which can regrow limbs.

Scientists have discovered a new species of dinosaur that was closely related to the Velociraptor.The 1.8m-long predator was a dromaeosaurid - a family of theropod dinosaurs from which modern birds descended.The researchers discovered its exquisitely well preserved skeleton in sediments dating from the Upper Cretaceous period in Inner Mongolia.They describe the find in the journal Zootaxa.

Deep brain stimulation is a promising therapy for epilepsy, US researchers from Stanford University have said.In a clinical trial, 110 people had electrodes implanted in their brains and their seizures were monitored.Forty-one per cent of patients showed a reduction in seizures after 13 months while 56% experienced a reduction after two years.

CAIRO - EGYPTIAN archaeologists have discovered a colossal ancient statue of the pharaonic deity of wisdom, Thoth, in the shape of a baboon, the council of antiquities said in a statement on Tuesday.The four-metre tall statue was discovered in four pieces along with two statues while workers were lowering ground waters beneath Luxor to help preserve the city's pharaonic temples, the statement said. It dates back to the 18th Dynasty, which ruled Egypt until 1292 BC.'It is the first time that a statue of Thoth, depicting him as a monkey, of this magnitude has been discovered,' Mansur Boraik, head of pharaonic antiquities in Luxor, told AFP.

We have five signed copies of Entangled to give away as prizes. Email us with the answer to the following question and the five lucky winners, chosen at random, will receive a copy of the book, signed by the author.Question: By what name is Los Angeles also known?a) Little Mexicob) New Madridc) The City of AngelsEmail [email protected] with your answer as the subject; please include your full name and UK mailing address within the email body. Thank you.If you would like to pre-order Entangled, please visit http://www.rbooks.co.uk/product.aspx?id=1846055539. If you use the promo code ENTANGLED you will receive a 40% discount!.

A synthetic substitute for marijuana's active ingredient mixed with incense is emerging as a popular choice for teens who want to smoke and get high, even as it poisons them.K2 is an herbal mixture product that offers the same high as marijuana.The substance, known as "spice" or "K2," is a cannabinoid, a class of drug that includes THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.First synthesized in an academic chemistry lab in South Carolina for pharmaceutical research, it moved on to be a plant-growing aid in Asia and then a substitute for marijuana in Europe before its recent emergence in the United States, where it skirts the laws placed on its herbal cousin."The stuff that's been put into the incense was originally made in our lab 15 years ago," said John W. Huffman, a professor of organic chemistry at Clemson University.

Spring is approaching us here in the northern hemisphere on Earth once again, and we are experiencing the annual thaw of the winter ice.Spring is approaching the northern hemisphere of Mars as well, and with it comes the thaw of carbon dioxide ice. Some of that dry ice sits at the tops of cliffs, and when it thaws it dislodges the material there. The rock and debris on Mars then does the same thing it would do on Earth: it falls. Fast.

LONDON: The fabled human spare parts kit may someday become a reality,thanks to scientists who claim to have discovered a gene which could allow regrowing of damaged body parts.An international team, led by The Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, has found that the p21 gene could block the healing power still enjoyed by some creatures like amphibians, but lost through evolution to all other animals. By turning off p21, the process can be miraculously switched back on.In their research, the scientists found that mice lacking the p21 gene gain the ability to regenerate lost or damaged tissue. Unlike typical mammals, which heal wounds by forming a scar, these animals begin by forming a blastema, a structure associated with rapid cell growth.

Thermal images have charted the temperature of Jupiter's Great Red Spot in unprecedented detail, revealing that the very center of the spot is warmer than the outer edges. The readings reveal the meteorological mechanics behind the solar system's strongest storm."We once thought that the Great Red Spot was a plain old oval without much structure, but these new results show that it is, in fact, extremely complicated," Glenn Orton, a researcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who headed up the research team behind the temperature study, said today in an image advisory from the European Southern Observatory.

WASHINGTON - NASA Administrator Charles Bolden defended the space agency's budget Tuesday and said its focus on commercial space transportation would provide ''incredible opportunities'' for U.S. companies."This budget is good for NASA because it sets the agency on a sustainable path that is tightly linked to our nation's interests,'' Bolden told space industry executives at the Satellite 2010 conference.One of few agencies to get a top-line budget increase, NASA's funding is due to increase by $6 billion over the next five years, Bolden said. He said NASA's funding plans would put NASA back on track as a "big-picture innovator'' in technology development that could create future growth.

Scientists have identified a sort of double-whammy solar super wave that is responsible for blowing away air from Mars and keeping its atmosphere thin, frigid and downright inhospitable for any possible future travelers.The waves happen when one stream of solar wind is overrun and amped up by another, faster gale of solar particles. That creates a flying traffic jam of particles that slam into Mars as one large pulse."People have known for some time that Mars loses atmosphere," said Niklas Edberg of the Swedish Institute of Space Physics and the University of Leicester. The reason is that, unlike Earth, Mars has no planet-wide magnetic field to redirect the atmosphere-eroding solar wind around and away from the planet.

What killed the dinosaurs? Ok, ok, we know an asteroid did it, roughly, but that made a comparatively small hole in the ground -- what actually killed them? We've heard lots about nuclear winter, global wildfires, all sorts of poisonous gases, and combinations thereof. But what if it was something far more mundane. What if it was ozone?At the start, it seems hard to make a potent mass murderer out of a gas that is just three little oxygen atoms bounds together. And we all know about the ultraviolet-shielding effect of the ozone layer high in the stratosphere. Very helpful for life, that is.

Is this love's labor no longer lost? A scholar says a play written in the 18th-century is very likely based on a missing work by William Shakespeare.After years of literary investigation, a professor at the University of Nottingham said Tuesday he's certain "Double Falsehood, or the Distressed Lovers" was born out of "Cardenio," a play Shakespeare scholars believe existed.Some scholars believe Lewis Theobald's "Double Falsehood," first performed in London's West End in December 1727, was based substantially on the Bard's "Cardenio."

An interesting "rock" initially tossed aside at a FedEx site near Pittsburgh International Airport turns out to be the skull of a meat-eating, early terrestrial amphibian that lived 70 million years before the first dinosaurs emerged, according to a paper released today in Annals of Carnegie Museum.The approximately 300-million-year-old carnivorous amphibian has been named Fedexia striegeli, after the well-known shipping service and Adam Striegel, who spotted the animal's well-preserved, five-inch-long fossil skull while he was a University of Pittsburgh student on a field trip.

It might sound like a mashup of monster movies, but palaeontologists have discovered evidence of how an extinct shark attacked its prey, reconstructing a killing that took place 4 million years ago.Such fossil evidence of behaviour is incredibly rare, but by careful, forensic-style analysis of bite marks on an otherwise well-preserved dolphin skeleton, the research team, based in Pisa, Italy, have reconstructed the events that led to the death of the dolphin, and determined the probably identity of the killer: a 4 m shark by the name of Cosmopolitodus hastalis.The evidence, published in the latest issue of the journal Palaeontology, comes from the fossilised skeleton of a 2.8 m long dolphin discovered in the Piedmont region of northern Italy.

Scientists have unearthed the remains of one of the Worlds rarest fossils - in downtown Ottawa. The 450 million year old fossil preserves the complete skeleton of a plumulitid machaeridian, one of only 8 such specimens known. Plumulitids were annelid worms - the group including earthworms, bristleworms and leeches, today found everywhere from the deepest sea to the soil in your yard - and although plumulitids were small they reveal important evidence of how this major group of organisms evolved."Such significant new fossils are generally discovered in remote or little studied areas of the globe, requiring difficult journeys and a bit of adventure to reach them" notes Jakob Vinther of Yale University, lead author of the paper describing the specimen. "Not this one though. It was found in a place that has an address rather than map co-ordinates!"

Of all the planet hacking possibilities floated as last-minute ways to stave off a climate catastrophe (building a solar shade for the Earth, injecting the atmosphere with sunlight-reflecting aerosols, etc.), iron seeding seems one of the more practical and feasible ideas. The scheme calls for the fertilization of patches of ocean with iron to spur blooms of plankton, which eventually die, sink, and sequester carbon at the seafloor.However, worries over the consequences of tinkering with the ocean ecosystem have held up plans to attempt this. And now, in a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers claim that such a plan could risk putting a neurotoxin into the food chain.

Research carried out by a group of archaeologists from the Centre for Prehistoric Archaeological Heritage Studies of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (CEPAP_UAB) at the Cova Gran site (Lleida) has contributed to stirring up scientific debate about the appearance of the first "modern" human beings on the Iberian Peninsula and their possible bearing on the extinction of the Neanderthals. The samples obtained at Cova Gran using Carbon 14 dating refer to a period of between 34,000 and 32,000 years in which this biological replacement in the Western Mediterranean can be located in time, although the study regards as relative the use of Carbon 14 for dating materials from the period of transition of the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic period( 40,000 and 30,000). The results also support the hypothesis that there was neither interaction nor coexistence between the two species.

br>Pattanam, a small village located 25 km north of Kochi, is the new pilgrimage spot on the international archaeological map. This quiet place, archaeologists now confirm, was once the flourishing port known to the Romans as Muziris and sung in praise by the Tamil Sangam poets as Muciri.Every year since 2005, excavations have yielded artefacts, structures and even a canoe in one instance to confirm this conclusion. This year has also been productive for archaeologists.

br>MEXICO CITY.- Several Prehispanic mural paintings at Tetitla Palace, in Teotihuacan Archaeological Zone are fully restored after 2 years of work conducted by specialists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).Among the paintings created between 600 and 700 AD, outstand Las Aguilas (The Eagles), Diosas verdes (Green Goddesses), Caballero Jaguar,(Jaguar Warrior), Jaguares anaranjados (Orange Jaguars), Manos (Hands), Aves con conchas (Birds with Shells) and Los Buzos (The Divers).

32,000 years ago, ancient humans gathered in a cave in Lascaux, France, where, by firelight, they created the first hand-drawn forms--scenes depicting man's relationship with the natural world. The favorite subject in those first drawings was the ancient ox, so impressive in stature and strength, that it was deified by our earliest ancestors. This reverence for nature remained as civilizations formed, and with it, written language. It is no wonder then that subtly hidden within our alphabet today lie the remnants of these ancient forms--many of which reflect the earliest relationships between man and nature. To find them, you just have to look a little closer.The precursor to many of the characters in our modern script are found in the pictogram hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt. The symbol for the letter 'A', in its earliest representation, depicted the image of the deified ox--which came to represent 'the great one' or 'the creator' in subsequent cultures. So it remained, as the symbol became adopted by the Greeks and Romans in a more rudimentary form, called 'Alpha'--still signifying a supreme position today.

An international team of researchers has identified intact neurons and cerebral cells in a mummified medieval brain, according to a study published in the journal Neuroimage.Found inside the skull of a 13th century A.D. 18-month-old child from northwestern France, the brain had been fixed in formalin solution since its discovery in 1998."Although reduced by about 80 percent of its original weight, it has retained its anatomical characteristics and most of all, to a certain degree its cell structures," anatomist and palaeopathologist Frank Ruhli, head of the Swiss Mummy Project at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, told Discovery News.

(AP) The Atlantic bluefin tuna and other marine life in the world's overfished oceans will be the focus of a two week United Nations conference that opened Saturday in the Gulf state of Qatar.The 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, will be discussing new proposals to regulate the shark trade and a ban on the export of Atlantic bluefin, a tuna species prized by sushi lovers.

Did flowing water carve the well-known channels on the face of Mars? Or was molten lava perhaps the instigator? This debate has raged for years, and the answer is important, because if there was a lot of surface water, that increases the chances that life may once have existed.Comparison of images of Martian channels to lava flows in Hawaii indicates that lava, not water, may have been the creative force behind at least some of the channels. So said NASA researcher Jacob Bleacher, speaking before the 41st Lunar and Planetary Science Conference last week.

(AP) The Atlantic bluefin tuna and other marine life in the world's overfished oceans will be the focus of a two week United Nations conference that opened Saturday in the Gulf state of Qatar.The 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, will be discussing new proposals to regulate the shark trade and a ban on the export of Atlantic bluefin, a tuna species prized by sushi lovers.

Anticipation is on the rise for a new crop of commercial suborbital spaceships that can serve the scientific and educational market. These reusable rocket-propelled vessels are expected to offer quick, routine and affordable access to the edge of space, along with the capability to carry research and educational crew members.There are a number of "cash and carry" suborbital craft under development by such groups as: Armadillo Aerospace, Blue Origin, Masten Space Systems, Virgin Galactic, as well as XCOR Aerospace.

A new infrared telescope has found 16 to 20 previously unknown asteroids that come close to Earth.The asteroids are dark, with most reflecting less than one-tenth of the sunlight that hits them. One object is as dark as asphalt, reflecting less than 5 percent of its light.The objects, which some scientists suspect may be spent comets, pose no threat to the planet, though how they got here remains a mystery."This population tells us a lot about the solar system's history and formation," said NASA's Amy Mainzer, the lead researcher on a project to use a new infrared telescope called WISE to search for near-Earth objects.

At least two mass graves containing dozens of people killed by the Nazis have been found on property used by the Austrian army, government officials said Friday. An army statement suggested some of the remains may be that of U.S. pilots shot down and imprisoned during World War II.Police Col. Rudolf Gollia, an interior ministry spokesman, said his ministry plans talks with the owners of the site to discuss exhumation, adding it was not yet clear whether the army owned the property or was renting it.

St. Catherine, Egypt - In the Bible, Moses climbs Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments.But he was the chosen one, and I am a mere mortal. Divine intervention seemed unlikely as I stood at the base of the mountain, chilled to the bone at 2 a.m., with only the faint light from a spattering of stars and sliver of moon on the dark rocky terrain.

Former Nasa astronauts who went to the Moon have told the BBC of their dismay at President Barack Obama's decision to push back further Moon missions.Jim Lovell, commander of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission, said Mr Obama's decision would have "catastrophic consequences" for US space exploration.The last man on the Moon, Eugene Cernan, said it was "disappointing".

A large early Christian Basilica (1st to early 4th century AD) and an important late Byzantine period (1204-1430) building were unearthed at a same number of Thessaloniki metro construction sites over the recent period. Part of a three-aisled, 50-metre-long basilica was unearthed during earthworks for the construction of the Sintrivani station and according to archaeologists it belongs to a cemetery.

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Did the Mediterranean region of megalithic age have any links with the state of Kerala in southern India?A wide range of megalithic burials recently discovered in some northern districts of Kerala during a research project have thrown light onpossible links between the Mediterranean and Kerala coasts in the prehistoric stone age that occurred between 6000 BC and 2000 BC.The researchers, however, say further studies and analysis are required to establish the thesis.

NEW YORK: American scientists have developed a new variety of polythene, the most widely used polymer, that can conduct heat like most metals yet remains an electrical insulator.The new form of polythene can be used as a cheap alternative to metals in electric applications like a computer processor chip where it is important to draw heat away from an object. Polymers are materials made of long, chain-like molecules.Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in US found that by getting all polythene molecules line up the same way, rather than forming a chaotic tangled mass, as they normally do, the polymer can be changed into heat conductor.

SAN FRANCISCO: Researchers at IBM on Tuesday said that they have discovered a way to make an Earth-friendly plastic from plants that could replace petroleum-based products, which are tough on the environment.The breakthrough promises biodegradable plastics made in a way that saves on energy, according to Chandrasekhar "Spike" Narayan, a manager of science and technology at IBM's Almaden Research Center in Northern California. Almaden and Stanford University researchers said that the discovery could herald an era of sustainability for a plastics industry rife with seemingly eternal products notorious for cramming landfills and littering the planet.

Egypt will shoulder the costs of restoring the country's Jewish houses of worship said the culture minister Tuesday, two days after a historic synagogue in Cairo's ancient Jewish quarter was rededicated in a private ceremony.Farouk Hosny said in a statement that his ministry views Jewish sites as much a part of Egypt's culture as Muslim mosques or Coptic churches, and the restorations would not require any foreign funding.On Sunday, the Ben Maimon synagogue, named after the 12th century rabbi and intellectual Maimonides, was rededicated in a ceremony that included half a dozen Egyptian Jewish families that long ago fled the country.

One loaf of bread and one jug of beer: that's what Egypt's Queen Behenu was offered during her funeral, according to a translation of hieroglyphics engraved on white stone found in her 4,000-year-old burial chamber this week.Known as the "Pyramid Texts," these hieroglyphics represent the oldest body of Egyptian religious writings and were widely in use in royal tombs during the 5th and 6th Dynasties of the Old Kingdom.

(PhysOrg.com) -- A pioneering deep-sea exploration robot -- one of the first successful submersible vehicles that was both unmanned and untethered to surface ships -- was lost at sea Friday, March 5, on a research expedition off the coast of Chile. The 15-year-old Autonomous Benthic Explorer, affectionately nicknamed ABE, was launched late Thursday night and had reached the seafloor to begin its 222nd research dive when, in the early hours of Friday morning, all contact with the surface vessel abruptly ceased. All efforts to reestablish contact failed.The vehicle was designed, built and operated by scientists and engineers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).

FROM giant hydraulic oysters that sit on the sea floor, to long rubber snakes that writhe in the ocean swell, there's no shortage of creatures designed to harness the power of the waves. If wave power is to emerge as a viable form of green energy, we need to put them to the test and only the most reliable can expect to survive.While there's a veritable menagerie of strange beasts taking to the sea, most of them can expect a humdrum life, says John Chaplin, a marine engineer at the University of Southampton in the UK. "The fundamental problem facing wave-power devices is that most of the time the water is moving with rather low velocities," he says.

ROCKET engines could benefit from a natural Martian lubricant - but not to keep them oiled. A salty sludge that may be lubricating the ice caps of Mars could one day provide fuel.The ice is too cold to flow normally. But if winds were to carry salty soil particles to the ice cap, they might gradually sink to form a briny bed, kept liquid by the planet's warmth. This could allow the ice cap to flow like a glacier, say David Fisher at the Geological Survey of Canada in Ottawa, and colleagues.

How fast is too fast? According to the laws of physics, the speed of light is a good boundary, as going beyond it opens you up to all sorts of paradoxes and space-time phenomena that are usually the stuff of sci-fi. But a couple of researchers in Austria have come up with a way to compute information faster than the speed of light.The idea is not quite as crazy as it might sound, though you may wish to limber up your mind before delving deeper. It's based on the same principle as that of quantum entanglement -- the notion that two particles on opposite sides of the universe can be linked through their quantum states such that one cannot be adequately described without the other. That is, an action on one particle instantaneously influences its counterpart, even if they are separated by light years.