Newsdesk Archive

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico have found a way of using sunlight to recycle carbon dioxide and produce fuels like methanol or gasoline.The Sunlight to Petrol, or S2P, project essentially reverses the combustion process, recovering the building blocks of hydrocarbons. They can then be used to synthesize liquid fuels like methanol or gasoline. Researchers said the technology already works and could help reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, although large-scale implementation could be a decade or more away."This is about closing the cycle," said Ellen Stechel, manager of Sandia's Fuels and Energy Transitions department. "Right now our fossil fuels are emitting CO2. This would help us manage and reduce our emissions and put us on the path to a carbon-neutral energy system."

(CBS/AP) A project to build a pioneering telescope in Chile got a $30 million boost with donations from Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and former company executive Charles Simonyi.Simonyi is donating $20 million and Gates $10 million to pay for three major mirrors that will be used in the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, a nearly $400 million project that will be able to survey the entire sky every three nights - something never done before.Astronomers anticipate surveying the heavens for 10 years, with observations starting in 2015.

When NASA begins launching astronaut teams on 800-day missions to Mars, one of the greatest survival tests these explorers will face is the inevitable alienation they'll experience with their remoteness from Earth and the harshness of the frozen Red Planet.After rocketing halfway around the solar system for 180 nights, these astronauts will start the first of 500 days on the Martian surface observing a cocoa-colored dusk fade into a star-saturated nightfall. Earth, 400 million kilometers away, will appear as just a twinkling blue diamond in the skies. The astronauts will have never felt so alone.

Top-secret details about hundreds of sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects are to be released for public viewing in response to the nation's continuing fascination with the subject.The Ministry of Defence will release a total of 160 files dating back to that time to the National Archives in Kew.The first files will be made available in Spring 2008 and the process is expected to take three years.The MoD has received reports of over 10,000 UFO sightings since the UFO project was set up in 1950.

Complex life on Earth may have blossomed during two "explosions," not one, a new study suggests.Earth's biggest species diversification occurred 542 million years ago, during what's called the Cambrian explosion. But a similar and rapid burst in evolution occurred 33 million years prior, researchers now think. They've dubbed the event the Avalon explosion.

CHICAGO (AFP) - Scientists believe that a quantum leap in computing power and the development of powerful new telescopes will soon unravel the "cosmic web," a theory by which the universe is bound by invisible threads of "dark matter."In a series of articles in Friday's edition of Science magazine, leading astrophysicists explain how new technologies and experiments being launched in the coming years will open a new window onto the origins and complexities of the universe.Current tools have granted a rough picture of how the universe was born out of the Big Bang and is held together by the gravitational pull of mysterious "dark matter."

Scientific advisers to the government emphasize in a report the importance of teaching evolution in public schools.The report by the National Academy of Sciences and its Institute of Medicine follows up on similar past publications, the last of which came out in 1999. The new document includes recently discovered evidence supporting evolution, including an important fossil find.The report released Thursday also takes swipes at creationism and other anti-evolution views.

LONDON (AFP) - World temperatures will cool slightly in 2008, but it will remain among the top 10 hottest years on record, British weather experts predicted Thursday.The impact of a strong La Nina climate pattern over the Pacific will help keep temperatures down, according to the annual forecast by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia.Overall the global temperature is expected to be 0.37 degree Celsius above the long-term average of 14.0 degree, making it the coolest year since 2000 when the value was 0.24 degree C above the average.

LONDON (Reuters) - Saturn's chilly north pole boasts a hot spot of compressed air, a surprising discovery that could shed light on other planets within our own solar system and beyond, researchers said on Thursday.Scientists already knew about a hot spot at Saturn's sunny south pole but data from the Cassini spacecraft now shows that the winter pole drenched in darkness also has a hot spot, said Nick Teanby, a planetary scientist, who worked on the study.

Biofuels reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in comparison to fossil fuels. In the Jan. 4 issue of the journal Science, Smithsonian researchers highlight a new study that factors in environmental costs of biofuel production. Corn, soy and sugarcane come up short. The authors urge governments to be far more selective about which biofuels they support, as not all are more environmentally friendly than fossil fuels.

Aperiodic, rule-bending crystals are the focus of an article that appears in the Jan. 4 issue of the journal Science. Co-authors looked at how these aperiodic crystals behave differently from "normal" periodic crystals. These differences could have implications not only for research but also for technology that relies on crystals, from computer displays to hard drives.All of us break the rules from time to time -- even crystals.

Four years ago, NASA's Stardust spacecraft chased down a comet and collected grains of dust blowing off its nucleus. When the spacecraft Comet Wild-2 returned, comet dust was shipped to scientists all over the world, including University of Minnesota physics professor Bob Pepin. After testing helium and neon trapped in the dust specks, Pepin and his colleagues report that while the comet formed in the icy fringes of the solar system, the dust appears to have been born close to the infant sun and bombarded by intense radiation from these and other gases before being flung out beyond Neptune and trapped in the comet. The research appears in the Jan. 4 issue of the journal Science.

You're wading knee-deep in science if you're following the presidential primaries this year, but in some cases, the candidates' positions are as clear as mud.Stem cell research, climate change, alternative fuels and creationism versus evolution in public education are acknowledged by even some of the most marginalized candidates.

As a hedge against water shortages and population growth, Orange County has begun operating the world's largest, most modern reclamation plant -- a facility that can turn 70 million gallons of treated sewage into drinking water every day.The new purification system at the Orange County Water District headquarters in Fountain Valley cost about $490 million and comprises a labyrinth of pipes, filters, holding tanks and pumps across 20 acres.

MIAMI - Nine years ago, an array of American Indians, environmentalists, preservationists, New Age spiritualists, diviners, even Cub Scouts rose up to save the Miami Circle, a 2,000-year-old artifact that many embraced as America's own Stonehenge.But today, the Circle -- a series of loaf-shaped holes chiseled into the limestone bedrock at the mouth of the Miami River -- is interred beneath bags of sand and gravel, laid over the formation in 2003 to protect it from the elements.

NEW light has been shed on ancient burial customs and worship practices following excavations at a 2,000-year-old cemetery in Shakura.A Bahraini archaeologist has a theory that upon the death of a relative, the Tylos civilisation (250BC until 250AD) would hold a funeral banquet at a cemetery and offer food to the deceased.Mohammed Ridha Mearaj said his team found a layer of ash at a cemetery in Shakura that contained fragments of glazed pottery with fish and animal bones.

According to University of Haifa researchers, these activities show that as early as the middle period of the Early Stone Age - about a quarter of a million years ago - people with modern hunting capabilities lived in the Carmel region.The ability to hunt large animals, choose the most suitable cuts of meat for consumption and grill them is behavior that serves to differentiate between Homo sapiens and earlier forms of human life.

PARIS (AFP) - Astronomers poring over a young star 180 light years from Earth have found evidence that stellar birth can lead to the formation of a planet only millions of years later, a mere blink on the cosmic timescale.The mainstream theory is that planets are forged from a disc of gas and dusty debris that is left over from the creation of a star.How long this process takes is a matter of debate, though.Earth is believed to be about 4.5 billion years old, and the Sun around 100 million years older.

Last year was the second warmest on record in the UK, according to figures released by the Met Office.The average mean temperature across the UK was 9.6C - slightly cooler than in 2006, but continuing the recent trend towards warmer temperatures.Since UK-wide records began in 1914, nine of the 10 warmest years have happened since 1989.2007 was no exception despite a natural weather event known as La Nina, which usually reduces global temperatures.

The basis for laughter may have originated in an ancient primate ancestral to both humans and modern apes, a study suggests.Scientists found that orang-utans had a sense of empathy and mimicry which forms an essential part of laughter.Facial expressions, such as the open, gaping mouth resembling laughter, were picked up and copied by orang-utans.The speed with which they were mimicked suggests these expressions were involuntary, Biology Letters reports.

Jan. 2, 2008 -- It's been 100 years since a sizeable space rock smacked into Earth, leveling more than 1,200 square miles of trees in a Siberian forest. But a visceral reminder of just how much devastation an asteroid impact can have may be just around the corner.Astronomers are keeping a close watch on a 160-foot wide asteroid designated 2007 WD5, which on Wednesday had a one in 20 chance of striking Mars on Jan. 30. Of course there are no cities or ecologies to worry about, and the prospect of Mother Nature boring a hole into the Martian terrain actually has scientists quite excited.

Welcome to the first annual Wired News rundown of the year's 10 most important scientific breakthroughs. 2007 was an amazing year for science. Unlike recent years, there were no high-profile cases of scientific fraud -- none that went uncovered, anyway. Journal publishers took extra care, requiring scientists to duplicate results in an effort to avoid scientific, not to mention public relations, fiascoes. And while those are entertaining, we'll take solid science over Sturm und Drang any day. Here we count down the top 10 scientific discoveries that rocked our Wired world the hardest this year.

It is not the type of a call that an archaeologist receives every day.There are bodies, the voice on the end of the line told Anne Jensen; we don't know who they were, or why they are here."People started noticing stuff eroding out of the bluff," she recalls, "and I got called out, along with the police, the real estate people and so on."It was very clearly an archaeological burial. And the bluff was collapsing quickly, so we just got the contents out."

Gilbert Strang is a quiet man with a rare talent: helping others understand linear algebra. He's written a half-dozen popular college textbooks, and for years a few hundred students at the elite Massachusetts Institute of Technology have been privileged to take his course.Recently, with the growth of computer science, demand to understand linear algebra has surged. But so has the number of students Strang can teach.

A new type of super-efficient household light bulb is being developed which could spell the end of regular bulbs.Experts have found a way to make Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) brighter and use less power than energy efficient light bulbs currently on the market.The technology, used in gadgets such as mobile phones and computers, had previously not been powerful enough to be used for lighting.But Glasgow University scientists said they had resolved the problem.

Thousands of tons of organic vegetables sold in British shops this year were produced using toxic chemical pesticides, it emerged yesterday.Many shoppers - who pay premium prices for "naturally" grown veg - are unaware that any chemicals are allowed on any organic produce.Under Soil Association rules, a small number of sprays are permitted.But yesterday it emerged that increasing numbers of potato farmers have been asking for special permission to use large amounts of copper fungicide over the summer and autumn.

ONCE they were spectacular resting places to honour the dead.But with pagan Britain's conversion to Christianity, the Bronze Age burial mounds came to be regarded with suspicion as places where devils and dragons lurked.It was at one such site in East Yorkshire that the Anglo-Saxons chose to bury the worst kind of criminals, away from hallowed ground, leaving their heads to rot on stakes.

LOS ANGELES - A comet-busting NASA spacecraft zipped past Earth on Monday on its way to rendezvous with another comet in an extended mission that will also see it hunt for Earth-sized planets around a cluster of stars. The Deep Impact probe made the first of three flybys designed to use the planet's gravity to hurtle the spacecraft toward comet Hartley 2 for a 2010 meeting.At its closest, the spacecraft was 10,000 miles above Australia."We're taking laps around the sun until the comet comes," said William Blume of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Can biofuels replace a significant amount of fossil fuel? Perhaps not. If, in 2006, we had dedicated the entire US corn crop to ethanol production we would have replaced only 12% of the gasoline we used. If we had planted every acre of cropland in the nation to corn we would have replaced only 80% of the gasoline we used. If the U.S. Energy Information Administration is correct in its estimates, and by 2030 the US is capable of producing 700,000 barrels of ethanol per day, we will have succeeded in offsetting roughly 6 percent of our transportation fuel needs.

It was good to see reports in the national media, including the New York Times and my own local paper, the Philadelphia Inquirer, on an effort by the town council in Brattleboro, VT, to have the town's district attorney draw up a war crimes indictment against President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.But the publication of news about this noble effort, which while thoroughly appropriate is unlikely to go anywhere even if the town council does pass the resolution, raises the question of why such a story would pass editorial muster, while the much bigger, and more significant, story about a growing national campaign to impeach these two criminals in the White House (on charges including war crimes) continues to be virtually blacked out.

GRANBY, COLO. -- The pine trees cradling this mountain town are dying, turned rusty red by a beetle that is destroying the Rockies' forests.The brittle corpses are an eyesore as well as a major fire hazard. When they collapse, they make hillsides unstable, increasing erosion and damming streams that feed into the Colorado River, which provides drinking water to seven states and Mexico.But Randy Piper is trying to focus on the positive.He moved here four years ago, scanned the hillsides and saw opportunity. Now he has a small showroom displaying beetle-killed pine logs that have been sculpted into doors, moldings or pieces for log cabins.

The landslides in Indonesia are a sample of the discourse ahead when it comes to global warming. Political leaders say, "Plant trees" -- two words that are supposed to make it better for the survivors of the landslides that killed at least 67 people and left tens of thousands homeless.Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, quoted in The Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald, called for a mass planting of trees to prevent disasters such as flash floods and landslides and to "save the Earth from global warming."

BAQUBA, Dec 27 (IPS) - The Iraqi government announcement that monthly food rations will be cut by half has left many Iraqis asking how they can survive.The government also wants to reduce the number of people depending on the rationing system by five million by June 2008.Iraq's food rations system was introduced by the Saddam Hussein government in 1991 in response to the UN economic sanctions. Families were allotted basic foodstuffs monthly because the Iraqi Dinar and the economy collapsed.

U.S.-based, company-owned gourmet coffeehouse operator, today announced that beginning next week it will begin converting more of the Caribou Coffee coffeehouses to offering rBST free milk.Working in conjunction with its dairy partner, Schroeder Company, it will convert the Caribou Coffee locations in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota to offer rBST free basic milk products including skim, 2 percent, and whole milk. This follows the conversion in the Colorado and the Washington, D.C. metro markets that occurred earlier this year.

CLARKSBURG, W. Va. -- The FBI is embarking on a $1 billion effort to build the world's largest computer database of peoples' physical characteristics, a project that would give the government unprecedented abilities to identify individuals in the United States and abroad.Digital images of faces, fingerprints and palm patterns are already flowing into FBI systems in a climate-controlled, secure basement here. Next month, the FBI intends to award a 10-year contract that would significantly expand the amount and kinds of biometric information it receives. And in the coming years, law enforcement authorities around the world will be able to rely on iris patterns, face-shape data, scars and perhaps even the unique ways people walk and talk, to solve crimes and identify criminals and terrorists. The FBI will also retain, upon request by employers, the fingerprints of employees who have undergone criminal background checks so the employers can be notified if employees have brushes with the law.

The legalisation of all drugs is "inevitable", according to the Chief Constable of North Wales.Richard Brunstrom, who has campaigned for drugs like heroin to be made legal, says he believes the move towards decriminalisation is "10 years away."The chief constable said repealing the Misuse of Drugs Act would destroy a major source of organised crime.Mr Brunstrom, whose views on drugs have been criticised, also said he believes ecstasy is safer than aspirin.

Groundwater, rising as a result of nearby development, is threatening to erode some of the most important historical monuments made by humankind.In Egypt, the Sphinx, pyramids and archaeological sites that have yet to be fully explored are flooding as a result of human activity nearby, including inadequate sewage treatment infrastructure, according to the Japan Economic Newswire.

PARIS (AFP) - Is the universe -- correction: "our" universe -- no more than a speck of cosmic dust amid an infinite number of parallel worlds?A staple of mind-bending science fiction, the possibility of multiple universes has long intrigued hard-nosed physicists, mathematicians and cosmologists too.We may not be able -- as least not yet -- to prove they exist, many serious scientists say, but there are plenty of reasons to think that parallel dimensions are more than figments of eggheaded imagination.

Within less than the span of a lifetime, Sydney could resemble a desert town like Alice Springs, or even the apocalyptic landscape from Cormac McCarthy's new novel, The Road.Scorched by temperatures five degrees higher than today, lacking drinking water and yet battered by rising seas and ravaged by bush fires of the ferocity that last month blackened huge areas of Victoria and Tasmania, one of the world's most spectacular cities could be virtually uninhabitable.So suggests a scientific report on climate change commissioned by the New South Wales government.

TOKYO - The frozen carcass of a 37,000-year-old baby mammoth unearthed this summer in Siberia arrived in Japan on Saturday for tests that researchers hope will shed new light on the internal structure of the ancient beasts, an official said.The 4-foot gray-and-brown carcass arrived at Tokyo International Airport on Saturday afternoon, said Mitsuyoshi Uno, an official with the joint Russo-Japanese mammoth-study project that is overseeing the research.Discovered in May by a reindeer herder in northern Siberia's remote Yamal-Nenets region, the frozen mammoth's trunk and eyes are virtually intact and it even has some fur, but its tail and ear were apparently bitten off, Russian officials said.

Ancient Pueblo Indians brewed their own brand of corn beer, a new study suggests, contradicting claims that the group remained dry until their first meeting with the Europeans.Archaeologists recently found that 800-year-old potsherds belonging to the Pueblos of the American Southwest contained bits of fermented residue typical in beer production.Before the discovery, historians thought a pocket of Pueblos in New Mexico did not have alcohol at all, despite being surrounded by other beer-making tribes, until the Spanish arrived with grapes and wine in the 16th century.

Updated Dec. 28, 2007 -- Astronomers have identified asteroid 2007 WD 5 in archival imagery. With these new observations, scientists at NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif have refined their trajectory estimates for the asteroid. Based on this latest analysis, the odds for the asteroid impacting Mars on Jan. 30 are now 1-in-25 -- or about 4 percent.WASHINGTON - Astronomers funded by NASA are monitoring the trajectory of an asteroid estimated to be 50 meters (164 feet) wide that is expected to cross Mars' orbital path early next year. Observations provided by the astronomers and analyzed by NASA's Near-Earth Object Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., indicate the object may pass within 30,000 miles of Mars at about 6 a.m. EST (3 a.m. PST) on Jan. 30, 2008.

Antarctica is not a barren polar desert but a rich, complex environment that may contain a thriving "oasis of life," experts say.Researchers have uncovered a complex subglacial system miles under the ice where rivers larger than the Amazon link a series of "lake districts," which may teem with mineral-hungry microbes.

Identifying the mummy of the female Pharaoh, Queen Hatshepsut; uncovering the real face of the boy-king Tutankhamun; restoring the Step Pyramid of Djoser; reopening the Kuttub Khana; discovering a New Kingdom fortress in Sinai, an intact tomb brimming with fine funerary pieces in the Delta and Palaeolithic rock art depicting animals in Upper Egypt -- all part of this year's work for Egyptologists.The year saw several important discoveries, archaeological events and the restoration of ancient Egyptian, Coptic and Islamic monuments. But there was also controversy: a demand for the loan of the Rosetta Stone by the British Museum, disagreement over the planned Cairo Financial and Tourist Centre overlooking the Salaheddin Citadel and the selection of the New Seven Wonders of the World.

Siraf city on the Persian Gulf coast is noted for its many historic sites dating back to the Sassanid, Parthian and Islamic eras.The discovery of east African ivory objects, Indian stone pieces, and Afghan lapis confirmed the use of the historic port as the main marine trade route during the pre-Islamic era and the first four centuries following the advent of Islam.However, when trade routes shifted to the Red Sea the ancient port was gradually forgotten.

Dec. 28, 2007 -- At the tail of 2007, the intrepid robotic explorer Spirit was beating a path to a safe spot to spend the Martian winter. It was a hard year, and the small, six-wheeled rover still bears the scars of a planet-wide dust storm that nearly ended its mission.Spirit and a twin named Opportunity have been pawing the dead Mars terrain for signs of past water, a key factor in scientists' ongoing quest to determine if Earth's neighbor ever hosted life.

Some liver damage caused by heavy drinking or hepatitis could be halted or even reversed, claim researchers.US researchers say that the growth of scarring around the organ might be stopped by blocking a vital protein which helps it to form.The research, in the journal PLoS Online, could also eventually help patients with lung problems and burns.

The scientist who led the team that created Dolly the sheep has received a knighthood in the New Year Honours.Professor Ian Wilmut and researchers from the Roslin Institute captured the world's attention in 1997 when they unveiled the first cloned mammal.Another scientist to be honoured is Debby Reynolds, the UK government's former chief veterinary officer.

New fossils suggest ancient pandas competed with the largest known apes for habitat and food nearly half a million years ago on the tropical coast of southern China, scientists say.The 400,000-year-old fossils of a giant panda were uncovered alongside the remains of a titan-sized, ancient ape called Gigantopithecus blacki, said Huang Wanbo, a paleontologist at Beijing's Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Archeologists have discovered the ruins of an 800-year-old Aztec pyramid in the heart of the Mexican capital that could show the ancient city is at least a century older than previously thought.Mexican archeologists found the ruins, which are about 36 feet high, in the central Tlatelolco area, once a major religious and political center for the Aztec elite.Since the discovery of another pyramid at the site 15 years ago, historians have thought Tlatelolco was founded by the Aztecs in 1325, the same year as the twin city of Tenochtitlan nearby, the capital of the Aztec empire, which the Spanish razed in 1521 to found Mexico City, conquering the Aztecs.

MOSCOW. (Nikolai Lukashov for RIA Novosti) - An international archeological expedition to Lake Issyk Kul, high in the Kyrgyz mountains, proves the existence of an advanced civilization 25 centuries ago, equal in development to the Hellenic civilizations of the northern coast of the Pontus Euxinus (Black Sea) and the Mediterranean coast of Egypt.The expedition resulted in sensational finds, including the discovery of major settlements, presently buried underwater. The data and artefacts obtained, which are currently under study, apply the finishing touches to the many years of exploration in the lake, made by seven previous expeditions. The addition of a previously unknown culture to the treasury of history extends the idea of the patterns and regularities of human development.

Hikers in the wilderness often place their faith in a trusty compass. But any navigator worth his salt knows that compasses can't truly be trusted: Only along certain longitudes in the Northern Hemisphere does a compass needle point due north.In other locales, a compass needle slews either to the left or the right of true north by a certain angle, a process commonly known as declination. That's because a compass isn't attracted to the north geographic pole, the point at which Earth's rotational axis pierces the Arctic ice. Instead, the needle is attracted to the north magnetic pole, the spot where the planet's invisible magnetic field lines burst from the surface and point directly upward.

The Arctic ice supports, literally, the polar bear, a half-tonne behemoth of creamy-white fur and muscle and claws you would not argue with.It is highly visible and hugely iconic.But just as the tiger and the rhinoceros depend on creatures you cannot see without a microscope and would not willingly give house room to if you could, so does the polar bear stand, literally, on a patchwork lattice of invisible, miniscule life.

Almost 80% of the Earth's surface has experienced a sharp fall in the number of large mammals as a result of human activities, a study suggests.By examining records dating back to AD1500, US researchers found that at least 35% of mammals over 20kg had seen their range cut by more than half.They said urgent action was needed to protect the animals, which were being hunted or suffering habitat loss.

Don't miss The Black Pharaohs documentary on the ABC at 9.30pm.Dr Vivian Davies claims that a recently discovered set of hieroglyphs proves that, in 800 BC, Egypt was under the rule of black Pharaohs from neighbouring Nubia.This film examines the impact of these sensational discoveries. "Listen to me you who are upon earth...For I warn of the coming of Kush."

Genealogy -- researching family history -- is one of the most popular hobbies in this country, right up there with gardening. A nation of immigrants, we almost all come from somewhere else we wish we knew more about, so searching for our roots holds tremendous appeal. And today there is an exciting new addition to the genealogists' tool kit: genetic genealogy.

It wasn't a great year for the fight against infectious disease. By the year's end, everyone was bickering about how best to share the world's samples of bird flu, a large AIDS vaccine trial had to be called off after it appeared vaccinated people were even more susceptible to HIV than the unvaccinated, and our old enemy, TB, had made a nasty comeback.In February, the first-ever known case of completely drug-resistant TB was identified in Italy. The worry is that drug-resistant TB strains will spread. Those fears were not calmed by an American diagnosed with extremely drug-resistant TB (dubbed XDR-TB) who, in May, flew from Prague to Montreal, sparking an international health scare.

Wait, don't squash that beetle! Its lineage predates dinosaurs.New research hints that modern-day versions of the insects are far older than any tyrannosaur that trod the Earth.Today's plethora of beetle species were thought to have blossomed 140 million years ago, during the rise of flowering plants. But the new study of beetle DNA and fossils, published in the Dec. 21 issue of the journal Science, pushes their appearance back to 300 million years ago.

A "mummified" dinosaur unearthed in North Dakota, a baby mammoth found frozen in Russia, or remains of penguins the size of people excavated in Peru: which discovery was the biggest hit with National Geographic News readers in 2007?Find out for yourself with this rundown of our most popular paleontology stories over the past year.

Explorers just returning from the Sahara desert have claimed they found a remarkable relic from Pharaonic times.Mark Borda and Mahmoud Marai, from Malta and Egypt respectively, were surveying a field of boulders on the flanks of a hill deep in the Libyan desert some 700 kilometres west of the Nile Valley when engravings on a large rock consisting of hieroglyphic writing, Pharaonic cartouche, an image of the king and other Pharaonic iconography came into view.

The 353-foot ship tears through the endless frozen plain, tossing glassy wedges of turquoise and white ice alongside the reinforced steel hull. Huge floes sparkle in a sun that doesn't set. "I call it my cold campfire," says an onboard oceanographer, gazing across the polar landscape. "I could watch it all day."But the international team of researchers aboard the Swedish icebreaker Oden haven't come to the Arctic to gawk at the frigid expanse. They're headed to the middle of the ice cap to find out what's below it. Way below.

Scientists have taken the first steps in reproducing the biological engine that powers a sperm's tail and modified it for use in nano-sized devices.The tiny biological machine is something like a car engine that uses fuel to generate motion.

In a move designed to quell persistent consumer opposition to meat from cloned animals, the nation's two leading animal cloners, Trans Ova and Viagen, have promised to keep tabs on whether their animals enter the food the system.The tracking system would require that the owner of a cloned animal make a financial deposit to Trans Ova or Viagen, which would only be returned after the death of the animal or its sale for food. Food producers using such meat must promise to market it as cloned beef or pork. This is a good and consumer-friendly idea, but it's not really a big concession by the cloning companies, as they have long claimed that cloned animals are too valuable to eat.

CAIRO (AFP) - In a potential blow to themed resorts from Vegas to Tokyo, Egypt is to pass a law requiring payment of royalties whenever its ancient monuments, from the pyramids to the sphinx, are reproduced.Zahi Hawass, the charismatic and controversial head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, told AFP on Tuesday that the move was necessary to pay for the upkeep of the country's thousands of pharaonic sites.

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan's first lunar probe, the world's most extensive mission to the moon in decades, has gone into full operation on schedule, the space agency announced Wednesday.The Kaguya orbiter completed a two-month initial phase to inspect the functioning of all the equipment before starting its main mission on Friday last week, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said."Normal operations will continue for 10 months to collect data for lunar and other research," JAXA said in a brief statement.

SANA'A, Dec. 23 (Saba) - Excavation operations at the area of Khamis Bani Sa'ad in Tehama district of Hodeidah province have discovered over a thousand of rare archaeological pieces dating back to 300 thousand years BC.A French expert said that some pieces indicated that the area's inhabitants had been fishermen not farmers as they are now, but the most important discovery is a horse tooth and what is amazing here is that this kind of horses dose not live currently in this area but in the Middle Asia.

The oldest form of human-powered transport was ice skating, and was invented in northern Europe around five thousand years ago.Archaeological evidence suggests that the first skates made of animal bones date back to 3000 BC, helping people travel more widely during frozen winters in Finland, marking the start of the evolution of more sophisticated skates.

ST. GEORGE, Utah -- An ancient 40-ton jungle gym of sorts, the massive burnt umber boulder anchors a neighborhood park and beckons suburban kids to clamber over its mysterious Anasazi etchings.And climb aboard they do, sometimes even attempting to scratch their own marks before the adults run them off, neighbors say. Archaeologists typically warn against even smudging natural skin oils on the chiseled drawings or the rock's natural mineral glaze so they won't slowly melt away.

Wishing you all a merry Christmas from the team at GrahamHancock.com. May your holidays be filled with love, light, joy and happiness.

By some measures, forest fires in the Amazon are at near-record levels, according to analysis Brazilian satellite data by mongabay.com. A surge in soy and cattle prices may be contributing to an increase in deforestation since last year.Last year environmentalists and the Brazilian government heralded a sharp fall in deforestation rates, the third consecutive annual decline after a peak in 2004. Forest loss in the 2006-2007 season was the lowest since record-keeping began in the late in 1970s. While the government tried to claim credit for the drop, analysts at the time said that commodity prices were a more likely driver of slow down: both cattle and soy prices had declined significantly over the previous months.

U.S. corn subsidies for ethanol production are contributing to deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, reports a tropical forest scientist writing in this week's issue of the journal Science.Dr. William Laurance, of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, says that a recent spike in Amazonian forest fires may be linked to U.S. subsidies that promote American corn production for ethanol over soy production. The shift from soy to corn has led to a near doubling in soy prices during the past 14 months. High prices are, in turn, driving conversion of rainforest and savanna in Brazil for soy expansion.

Space Shuttle Columbia during STS-80 took a crew of five astronauts into a 17 day, 15 hour and 54 minute mission around the earth, the longest flight in the history of this vehicle. During this lengthy flight a very strange event occurred that even had crewman Dr. Story Musgrave unable to explain what he observed from the shuttle windows.A large disc shaped object appeared below the Columbia. The shuttle was approximately, 190 Nautical miles high.The disc was first observed to miraculously appear from out of nowhere, flying through the clouds below and progressing from right to left as the astronauts stared in utter amazement. The outer rim of the craft appeared to be rotating counter-clockwise. It was very large (compared to common space junk and breakaway ice), approximately 50 to 150 feet in diameter.

PARIS (AFP) - A team of American scientists reported Sunday that they had widened the scope of a Japanese breakthrough in stem cells that many experts have hailed as the greatest medical achievement of 2007.In November, Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University and colleagues announced they had reprogrammed human skin cells to have the multiple potency of stem cells culled from human embryos.Stem cells are early cells that differentiate into one of the 220 different types of cells in the body.

The countries planning the world's biggest fusion experiment have learned not to count on the United States. So this week's decision by the U.S. Congress to strip out a planned $149 million contribution in 2008 to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) won't halt next year's planned start of the project in Cadarache, France (ScienceNOW, 18 December). But ITER officials say that they will miss the 9% U.S. share if the latest budget decision means that the United States is pulling out--for the second time--of the $12 billion project.

Millions are about to celebrate the story of Christ's nativity.But - and it may not be the best time of year to bring this up - that story could have a flaw in it. We may have got wrong the place where it happened all this time.Thousands have visited the town of Bethlehem, south of Jerusalem, in the run-up to Christmas.But, according to Israeli archaeologist Aviram Oshri, this is the wrong Bethlehem.

XI'AN, China -- In 1974, a farmer digging for water in this city of 7 million in northwestern China's Shaanxi Province struck pay dirt for the scientific and tourism worlds: Some shards of terra cotta that scientists quickly determined were fragments of a figure buried in the third century B.C.The find at Xi'an, ancient capital of China and the terminus of the Silk Road, tantalized scholars, and they convinced the Chinese government to jump in to have the spot excavated. Over the next decade, an army of life-size terra-cotta figures of soldiers and horses, plus some brass chariots and battle gear, emerged. To date, the digs have yielded some 8,000 unique figures, and scientists say that's only a portion of what is there.

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil has banned the sale of farm products from illegally deforested areas in the Amazon in an attempt to reverse months of increasing destruction in the world's largest rain forest, officials said on Friday.A decree signed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Friday imposes fines for buying or trading goods such as beef or soy produced on illegally deforested properties."This applies to international traders as much as local butchers in the Amazon," Environment Minister Marina Silva told a news conference in the capital Brasilia.

(AP) -- While great nations fretted over coal, oil and global warming, one of the smallest at the U.N. climate conference was looking toward the heavens for its energy.The annual meeting's corridors can be a sounding board for unlikely "solutions" to climate change - from filling the skies with soot to block the sun, to cultivating oceans of seaweed to absorb the atmosphere's heat-trapping carbon dioxide.Unlike other ideas, however, one this year had an influential backer, the Pentagon, which is investigating whether space-based solar power - beaming energy down from satellites - will provide "affordable, clean, safe, reliable, sustainable and expandable energy for mankind."

LONDON (Reuters) - Former British prime minister Tony Blair has converted from Britain's established church, Anglicanism, to Roman Catholicism, the head of Britain's Catholics said on Saturday.Blair, whose wife and four children are Catholic, was received into the Catholic Church by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor on Friday in a move that had been widely expected after he stepped down from power in June.

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Mars could be in for an asteroid hit.If the asteroid strikes Mars, it will probably hit near the equator close to where the rover Opportunity is exploring.A newly discovered hunk of space rock has a 1 in 75 chance of slamming into the red planet on January 30, scientists said Thursday."These odds are extremely unusual. We frequently work with really long odds when we track ... threatening asteroids," said Steve Chesley, an astronomer with the Near Earth Object Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Chinese archaeologists have raised a merchant ship which sank in the South China Sea 800 years ago while transporting a cargo of precious porcelain.The Nanhai 1 treasury ship, built during the Song dynasty which ruled China from 960-1279, is believed to contain one of the biggest discoveries of Chinese artefacts from that period."It's the biggest ship of its kind to be found," said professor Liu Wensuo, and archaeologist from Sun Yat-sen University.

Reindeer meat went from being an occasional treat to everyday fare among prehistoric cavemen who lived in Southwest France and what is now the Czech Republic, two new studies suggest.In fact, so many nibbled-on reindeer bones were present in their caves that possible calendars circa 26,000 years ago might have been carved on the leftover bones. They may have also been used as counting devices or for ornamentation.

PARIS (AFP) - Corot, a French-funded probe designed to detect worlds orbiting other stars, has found four such candidates in its first year of operation, its mission chiefs said here on Thursday.Data sent back by the 170-million-euro (244-million-dollar) spacecraft has yielded two confirmed finds of so-called exoplanets and two probable finds, they told a press conference."Corot is performing exceptionally well," said the programme's director of science, Annie Baglin, of the Paris-Meudon Observatory.

Jamestown Rediscovery archaeologists opened up several new squares in the western corner of the fort this past week, hoping to find signs of the settlement's first church. Methodically sifting through the piled-up mounds of a huge Civil War earthwork, they uncovered numerous postholes that appear to have supported one of the 1607 colony's first buildings. But much more digging must be done to determine the size and possible function of the structure.

Hydrogen is the fuel of the future. Unfortunately, one problem remains: Hydrogen is a gas and cannot easily be pumped into a tank like gasoline. Storage in the form of solid hydrides, chemical compounds of hydrogen and a metal or semimetal, are good storage materials in principle, but have not been well suited to automotive applications.An American research team at the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn and the University of California, Los Angeles, has now developed a novel hydride that could be a useful starting point for the development of future automotive hydrogen-storage materials.

The next time you see something flapping in the breeze on an overhead power line, squint a little harder. It may not be a plastic bag or the remnants of a party balloon, but a tiny spy plane stealing power from the line to recharge its batteries.The idea comes from the US Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) in Dayton, Ohio, US, which wants to operate extended surveillance missions using remote-controlled planes with a wingspan of about a metre, but has been struggling to find a way to refuel to extend the plane's limited flight duration.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans think it is possible that some federal officials had specific warnings of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, but chose to ignore those warnings, according to a Scripps Howard News Service/Ohio University poll.A national survey of 811 adult residents of the United States conducted by Scripps and Ohio University found that more than a third believe in a broad smorgasbord of conspiracy theories including the attacks, international plots to rig oil prices, the plot to assassinate President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and the government's knowledge of intelligent life from other worlds.

A recently discovered pagan shrine dedicated to Rome's legendary founder Romulus and his brother Remus is being linked by a scholar to the first celebration of Christmas held on the date that still marks the festivity today.Last month Italian archaeologists unveiled an underground grotto which they believe ancient Romans worshipped as the place where a wolf nursed the legendary twins.

As astronomers become more adept at searching for, and finding, planets orbiting other stars, it's natural to wonder if anybody is looking back. Now, a team of astronomers that includes a professor from MIT has figured out just what those alien eyes might see using technologies being developed by Earth's astronomers.According to their analysis, among other things E.T. could probably tell that our planet's surface is divided between oceans and continents, and learn a little bit about the dynamics of our weather systems.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - One of the oldest artifacts of America's first experiments with nuclear power, a 70-year-old atom-busting machine, will be junked, Columbia University said on Thursday.The 60-tonne machine, called a cyclotron, has sat dormant in the basement of the New York university's physics department since 1965, when the Ivy League school sent parts of it to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.

A BURNT skeleton found beneath a bus shelter in northern Sydney is proof of murder - 4000 years ago.The victim, a tall, well-built man in his mid-30s, was set on by spear-wielding attackers, who then set his body alight and left it unburied on the crest of a sand dune.Peter Veth, an archeologist with the National Centre of Indigenous Studies at the Australian National University in Canberra, said: "This is the first example of death by spearing from Australia. The find is highly significant for Australian and global archeology, as it reflects on social practice and customary law."

JAPAN has abandoned its plan to hunt as many as 50 humpback whales, according to broadcaster NHK."Japan has decided to delist humpbacks from the whaling list for now due to concern about the negative impact on relations with Australia,'' NHK said, quoting unnamed officials.Whaling expert Junko Sakuma told The Australian's Tokyo office that there had been a hot debate among the government officials over the hunting of humpback whales before the departure of Japan's Nisshin-Maru whaling fleet for Antartica on November 18.

Administration officials refuse to shed light on whether White House lawyers talked to the CIA about whether to destroy interrogation videotapes of two terrorism suspects but bristle at questions into the affair and complain about news coverage. That puts the White House in an awkward position. The very vision of White House officials sitting around a table talking about such an inflammatory course of action evokes echoes of Nixon and Watergate.The secret destruction of the CIA tapes in late 2005 has drawn fire from both a federal judge and from Congress. The tapes purportedly documented harsh interrogation techniques approved by the White House, including waterboarding, which simulates drowning.

CAIRO, Egypt -- Months after Egypt boldly announced that archeologists had identified a mummy as the most powerful queen of her time, scientists in a museum basement are still analyzing DNA from the bald, 3,500-year-old corpse to try to back up the claim aired on TV.Progress is slow. So far, results indicate the linen-wrapped mummy is most likely, but not conclusively, the female pharaoh Queen Hatshepsut, who ruled for 20 years in the 15th century BC.

Time Magazine has named a study by Oxford researchers, using new dating techniques on a human skull to help find out where our most recent common ancestor came from, as one of the Top 10 Scientific Discoveries of the Year.The skull was discovered more than 50 years ago near the town of Hofmeyr in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is thought to be 36,000 years old, according to a study published in the journal Science in January 2007. The finding by Oxford researchers in collaboration with Stony Brook University, New York, supports a growing body of genetic evidence which suggests that humans originated in sub-Saharan Africa and migrated into the Old World around this date.

The sands of time have been rapidly eroding at the Orkney Bronze Age site, the Links of Noltland. Before everything is lost to the sea around the island of Westray, Historic Scotland have been carrying out a thorough excavation to learn everything they can.The dig at the ancient dune-protected houses has now turned up an unexpected and impressive discovery dating to Neolithic times, archaeologists have announced following the conclusion of their work.

The founders of Rome, the builders of Stonehenge, and ancient Egypt's "female king" were among the stars of this year's most popular archaeology stories from National Geographic News.

What started out as a moderate global warm-up about 55 million years ago triggered a massive injection of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere that sent temperatures skyrocketing, a new study says.The finding suggests that today's temperature rise may just be priming the planet for a carbon belch of epic proportions.

A new idea could explain how the climate of early Mars became warm enough to support oceans.Scientists believe sulphur dioxide released from ancient volcanoes created a balance similar to Earth's carbon cycle, which controlled the climate.The notion, outlined in the journal Science, could explain why Mars rovers have found sulphur minerals on the surface but no limestone like on Earth.It may also provide clues to how life evolved on our own planet.

LOS ANGELES - Mars could be in for an asteroid hit.A newly discovered hunk of space rock has a 1 in 75 chance of slamming into the Red Planet on Jan. 30, scientists said Thursday."These odds are extremely unusual. We frequently work with really long odds when we track ... threatening asteroids," said Steve Chesley, an astronomer with the Near Earth Object Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.