Newsdesk Archive

Experts are baffled by the unexpected births of three baby sharks at a US aquarium. Keepers believe the female whitespotted bamboo shark that gave birth at the Belle Isle Aquarium in Detroit hasn't been near a male shark in at least six years. The Detroit Free Press reports that genetic testing will be done to see if the 'virgin' births can be explained.

A Roman-era limestone container found near the Galilee city of Zippori, provides the first evidence that a significant Second Temple ritual lasted well beyond the holy site's destruction. The large, decorated vessel was recently found in excavations conducted under the auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Institute of Archaeology, a university statement said. This kind of vessel was used by Jewish priests, mainly in Jerusalem for Temple rituals such as sacrifices, until the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E. The container was used for storing "purified" water since stone vessels were not considered, under Jewish law, to acquire impurities as did other vessels such as those made of clay.

Chinese archeologists in Henan Archeology Research Institute found a royal tomb in Xinzheng City, Henan Province, the tomb's scale emulates that of Qinshihuang's Mausoleum. It includes 18 horse and carriage pits of Zheng State of the Spring and Autumn Period, 3000 tombs and several Zheng State's monarchs. They belong to the remains of the rulers of the Zheng State.

World renowned geosientist and eminent paleo-anthropologist, Professor Michel Brunet surprised his Port Harcourt audience when he disclosed that "the Fossils of possibly the earliest ancestor of modern man, dated about 7 million years ago was discovered around the lake Chad area, and there was every possibility that the very early man lived in Nigeria." Professor Brunet was speaking during the 17th edition of the Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society (NMGS) Jacques Halfon distinguished lectureship programme titled "origin of man from the theory of Evolution," which was sponsored by ELF Petroleum Nigeria Ltd in Port Harcourt.

A bitter war between rival Maya city-states may have set the stage for the collapse of that once-great civilization, say scientists who translated recently found hieroglyphics on stone stairs in an ancient pyramid in Guatemala. A hurricane last summer began exposing the carvings at a site known as Dos Pilas, and the story they tell is forcing scholars to rewrite history.

Archaeologists diving deep beneath the ferries and yachts criss-crossing Poole harbour have found startling evidence of the oldest working harbour in Britain, built centuries before the Roman invasion. Timber pilings excavated from a deep layer of silt on the sea bed have been radio-carbon dated at 250BC, the oldest substantial port structures by several centuries anywhere on the British coast.

Eric Chaisson, a physicist at Tufts University, defines cosmic evolution as an ever-increasing concentration of energy as it flows through space and time. For example, vastly more energy flows through a star than through a worm, but the concentration of energy is greater for a worm than for a star - roughly 10,000 ergs per second per gram for a worm versus 2 ergs per second per gram for a typical star. I'll spare you the technical details, but when Chaisson calculates energy concentrations for everything from stars to cells to worms to human brains, he gets an exponentially rising curve that he takes to be the sign of increasing complexity. And guess what's at the top of Chaisson's curve? Not the human brain, but the Pentium chip, with an energy concentration rate of 10 billion ergs per second per gram. According to Chaisson, we are conceding to computers our place as the most complex things in the universe.

Eavesdropping among animals influences their behavior, Lee Dugatkin, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Louisville, has found. Dugatkin and a colleague, Ryan Earley of Georgia State University, studied eavesdropping among male swordtail fish they placed in an experimental tank. They put two fish on one side of a partition and a lone observer male on the other. In some cases, the partitions were clear and in others, opaque. The fish that could observe their potential adversaries fighting through the clear partition were less likely to defeat the winner of the fight.

When a couple of archaeologists whose friendship dated back to college days decided to use their vacation to explore the Amazon River basin a few years ago, they had no reason to think they would find much of interest. Scholars had ruled out the likelihood that prehistoric Indians had made much use of that region because of soil that is so deprived of nutrients that one expert had labeled the Amazon and its many tributaries a "counterfeit paradise." But what James Petersen and Michael Heckenberger found was so startling that it has helped galvanize researchers around the world and it has refocused attention on that region.

According to the evolutionary view, the attractiveness of individuals is directly linked to their value as mates. A "high-value" mate is someone who best enhances your reproductive success. Going back into the evolutionary past of the human race, someone who noticed the cues to the value of a potential partner, and intentionally selected a high-value mate, would leave behind more children. These children would tend to inherit genes for attentiveness. Attention to attractiveness is thus part of our evolutionary design. This scientific analysis is reflected in the fact that our magazines and television screens are filled with attractive people. It's obvious that both women and men are highly concerned with good looks in a partner.

Physicists say they have mass produced antimatter, a crucial first step towards precision studies of its properties that may help solve one of the greatest mysteries of the Universe. Antihydrogen has been made before, but only a few atoms at a time.

Doctors say they have triggered out-of-body experiences in a female patient by stimulating her brain. They believe their work may help to explain mysterious incidents when people report experiences of 'leaving' their body and watching it from above. The doctors did not set out to achieve the effect - they were actually treating the women for epilepsy.

Two teams of US astronomers have separately reported the discovery of a new type of black hole. It's long been known that the centres of most galaxies contain what is called a supermassive black hole, equal in mass to millions of suns. Astronomers also have found stellar black holes, which form from the collapse of a star five to 10 times the mass of the sun.

Experts have dismissed claims a strange sea monster has been washed up on the Nova Scotia shoreline. A strange carcass attracted crowds after being washed up in the Bay of Fundy, near Parkers Cove. According to local media reports, townspeople were convinced the remains belonged to a Loch Ness-style creature. The badly-decomposed specimen measured 30 feet and seemed to have a long neck and small skull.

The mystery surrounding an image of Our Lady shedding tears of blood will soon be solved after tests proved that the tears were human. And investigations, concluded last week, also showed that the phenomenon was probably genuine. Members of the commission appointed by Archbishop Joseph Mercieca to investigate the case of Our Lady of the Cave in the Rabat Dominican church were in Malta last week to continue their investigation into the case. Brother George Micallef, who takes care of the area where the bas-relief is kept, yesterday told The Malta Independent that the DNA tests proved the tears were real.

Something massive and fishy has washed ashore in Nova Scotia, and no one can figure out what it is. Experts say it might be a whale or a shark, but it doesn't look like either. And it's making some wonder: Could it be a sea monster? Grant Potter and Darren Robinson have been examining the creature for days and are still stumped. They're both convinced it can't be whale, but they admit they can't be sure because they've never seen anything like it.

For at least a century and a half, the sea-going folk of Nova Scotia, on Canada's far eastern coast, have been encountering some very strange - and very large - creatures. One of the first known sightings occurred in 1845, when fishermen John Bockner and James Wilson saw a 100-foot-long "serpent" in St. Margaret's Bay. They reported their sighting to the Reverend John Ambrose, who not long afterwards had his own run-in with the monster.

After more than 20 years as a celestial wallflower, the moon is about to be bombarded by orbiting, penetrating, and crashing space probes from Europe, Japan, and TransOrbital, a private US firm. China is also showing interest, intending to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. ''It'll be another moon race,'' says TransOrbital's president, Dennis Laurie. But instead of the United States vs. the Soviets, it may be TransOrbital and China, or Japan and Europe. Another difference is that while Europe and Japan are hoping to make small steps for science and technology with their missions, TransOrbital and China are eyeing the moon for giant leaps in profitability.

Rings around the earth? While most of us know about rings around Saturn and Jupiter, some scientists believe there once were rings of rock debris around our own planet. Two scientists - Peter J. Fawcett, of the University of New Mexico, and Mark B.E. Boslough, of the U.S. Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories - have suggested that a geologically "recent" collision (about 35 million years ago) may have caused such a temporary debris ring.

The TriField Meter is a magnetometer that measures variations in magnetic fields. It was originally designed to detect environmental pollution, but Auerbach discovered its usefulness for paranormal sleuthing. As a professor of the paranormal, he investigates supernatural occurrences with the help of the TriField Meter, and usually works in conjunction with a team of paranormal specialists. "The technology was always to see if there were any environmental disturbances or if there was a physical something that we could measure that connected to the human experience. But it was always about the human experience," he said. "You wouldn't walk into a place just because it looks spooky to see if you could measure something with technology. You'd have a story first." The tech comes in to verify the witness' accounts.

October 1st, we kick off our discussion of Author of the Month, Richard Milton's "Shattering the Myths of Darwinism." Pick up your copy today! Don't miss out on what should be a controversial examination of classic evolutionary theory.

The Iceman, whose 5,000-year-old frozen mummy was discovered in the Alps in 1991, had last meals including venison and wild goat, a team of Italian scientists reports. "We have analyzed the intestinal content and found compelling evidence that the Iceman was a high-ranked hunter," said Franco Rollo of the University of Camerino.

A single gene could explain why some people have larger bums than others. Experts in the US have discovered a mutated gene which leads to some animals boasting "unusually big and muscular bottoms". Researchers from the Duke University Medical Centre, in North Carolina, hope the genetic mutation will explain how muscle and fat is deposited in humans.

Astronomers have announced the discovery of the 100th planet known to inhabit another solar system. Dr Hugh Jones of Liverpool John Moores University led the international team which found the new world orbiting the star Tau 1 Gruis. The star is 100 light years from Earth in the southern constellation Grus, "The Crane".

Genes, and not religious conviction, explain why Jewish people typically have fewer drink problems than non-Jews. Researchers in the US say a genetic mutation carried by at least a fifth of Jews appears to protect against alcoholism. The same inherited trait is fairly common in Asian people, but is much rarer in white Europeans.

US physicists say they have broken the speed of light using basic lab equipment. The innovation has been claimed by researchers at the Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. Jeremy Munday and Bill Robertson passed light signals through a length of different types of coaxial cable using two signal generators.

About 65 million years ago a space rock slammed into Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and scattered high-velocity debris around Earth, igniting wildfires in North America, the Indian subcontinent, and most of the equatorial part of the world. However, northern Asia, Europe, Antarctica and possibly much of Australia may have been spared the inferno, according to a new computer simulation of how the wildfires spread around the world.

The Authority for the Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage says the remains of Australopithecus Boisei, 1.4 million-years-old, and of Homo Erectus, between 1.35 and 1.45 million-years-old, were found at the Konso site in southern Ethiopia. The head of the authority's department of archeology and anthropology said ancient stone tools between 700,000 and 2 million years old were also found at the same site, Most paleontological discoveries in Ethiopia, notably the 3.2 million-year-old fossil that scientists decided to call Lucy, were unearthed in the the north- eastern Afar region.

MODERN technology was to have shone a light on one of history's lingering secrets, but a toy train-sized robot left researchers and television viewers scratching their heads over a new mystery surrounding Egypt's Great Pyramid. The robot - dubbed the Pyramid Rover - took two hours to crawl through a narrow shaft, drilling through a door and pushing in a camera connected to a thin cable so to see what lay behind.

With audiences watching on live television, the miniature robot - dubbed the Pyramid Rover - crawled about 65 metres (71 yards) up a narrow tunnel to explore a mysterious shaft blocked by a limestone door.

The idea of uncovering tangible proof of a biblical story might seem preposterous except for what imagery experts call "an anomaly" jutting out from an ice-encrusted glacier near the top of Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey.

The grave of a bride dressed in wedding clothes dating back to the Early Iron Age (about 2,400 years B.C.) was discovered outside the village of Shipovo, 70 kilometers south of Ufa, the capital of Russia's internal republic of Bashkortostan. ...the [Department of Archaeology] discovered an untouched grave of a bride who died at the age of about 12 years. Some 50 well-preserved jewelry pieces of great historical significance have been found, including bronze, gold and silver belts representing the heads of gryphons, horses and rams; a belt buckle decorated with small round metal mirrors, a beautiful ring, clothing ornaments in the form of bear heads and heavy earrings.

Experts says Stone Age man invented beer before he made bread. Archaeologists have found that man first discovered alcohol in 9000 BC, more than 5,000 years earlier than previously thought. According to The Sun they reckon pottery was invented because man needed a mug to hold his beer.

Chinese archaeologists have unearthed a site inhabited by ancient people in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, south China, containing more than 1,000 stone tools dating back about 800,000 years. The relics include chipped stone tools such as pickaxes, axes with thin blades and chopping tools, and quartz fragments that had been used in making the stoneware. They were found on a hill near Baidu Village of Tiandong County in the Baise Prefecture. The archaeologists said this was the first time such artifacts had been found in the stratum at Baise.

A CRYPT lost centuries ago has divulged a few of its secrets to archeologists intent on discovering how it came to be concealed beneath the floorboards of St. James Anglican Church in Somerset. Local carpenters unearthed the crypt last summer while tearing out rotted flooring just beyond the foyer inside the church. Archdeacon Dr. Arnold T. Hollis, who has led the church for 25 years, had no inkling of what lay beneath and is fascinated by the find.

A team of Australian and French Scientists have disproved a commonly held scientific theory that climatic change in the Antarctic was influenced by events in the North Atlantic region, which includes the North Pole. The study is to be published in the international journal Science this week.

Christopher Columbus may have braved the oceans and, according to some, discovered the New World, but Spanish historians planning to dig up his remains for the 10th time clearly do not believe he has won the right to rest in peace. Historians in the southern city of Seville and their counterparts on the Caribbean island of Santo Domingo are getting out their pickaxes and spades once more for what they hope will be the final disinterment of a man who is deemed to have two corpses in two separate graves.

A team of researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California has confirmed that in drier regions, waters migrating from the surface can take many tens of thousands of years to reach the water table. Since such waters began their underground migration at the time of the last ice age, they hold a scientific and historical record of global climate change. Their results were reported in the inaugural issue of the electronic publication, Vadose Zone Journal www.vadosezonejournal.org, published by the Soil Science Society of America. These scientists applied one of the largest super computers to study the effect of climate on water movement through this section underneath the surface, called the vadose zone. They used computer simulations to consider how this water chemically interacts with the rocks it migrates through. Because the type and abundance of minerals varies with changes in rock type, they can determine the chemical composition and how fast it changes at any point along the flow path of the water.

In Pyramids Live: Secret Chambers Revealed, presented by the National Geographic Channel, Egyptologist Zahi Hawass and his team will use a customized robot similar to those used to search for survivors of last year's attack on the World Trade Center to peer into a narrow shaft that opens into the queen's chamber of the Great Pyramid. The space has been blocked for centuries by a chunk of limestone that has copper handles and may have been wedged into the shaft by pyramid builders after they used it as a polishing tool.

Archaeologists think early humans at this stage in evolution did not have the brain power to plan ahead.

...the primitive abode has a floor area of about 40 sq m....seven pieces of undamaged pottery and other earthenware and tools such as stone plates, a mill and a burnisher were found....the existence of stone tools at the site indicated that ancient inhabitants were aware of the concept of division of labour.

Pictures and abstract images could form the basis of a new text message language that allows people to converse without words, a psychologist is suggesting. Professor Simon Garrod has conducted experiments which he says proves the old adage "a picture is worth a thousand words". He found that when two people communicate solely by drawing pictures, their graphical dialogues quickly come to resemble spoken conversation.

Gould was concerned that human culture and history not be boiled down to code. There were times one felt that what offended him most about his foes was not the particulars of their argument but the relentless monism driving it. He called Pinker, Dennett, Dawkins, et al. hyperselectionists, pan-adaptionists and, when truly annoyed, out and out Darwinian fundamentalists. But sometimes he simply called them hedgehogs. The hedgehog, according to one of his favorite parables, knows only one thing and is determined to explain everything with it. Gould identified with the fox, which is a pluralist; Darwin was a fox, he said, and nature is, too.

As for the little creature on the Dendera ceiling, I believe that both Krupp and Bauval have erred in concluding that the creature perched on the Foreleg must be an actual animal, either a feline or a bovid. So who is the little guy?

Archaeologists working in Teotihuacan - the "City of the gods" - are closing in on a mystery regarding the form of government at this major ancient pre-Hispanic city that could be resolved by October or November, press reports said Monday.

German researchers have unearthed a possible reason why mother-in-laws receive such a bad press in some societies. They found that if a mother's mother was alive during a child's first year it had a 79% chance of survival. But if the father's mother was around, the survival rate fell to 50%.

The segments were grown from the animals' own cells and they were able to use the reconstructed organs to mate, according to New Scientist magazine.

Just showing up will violate superstitions. You have to walk up a cracked sidewalk and under a ladder just to get in the doors.

ALS, sometimes called "Lou Gehrig's Disease" after the famous baseball player whose career was cut short by the disease, has been associated with many patients who were lean throughout their lives as well as being athletes, said Lewis P. Rowland, MD, with the Neurological Institute in New York, and a co-author of the study.

Medical authorities uniformly say it is safe to take drugs past their expiration date - no matter how "expired" the drugs purportedly are. Except for possibly the rarest of exceptions, you won't get hurt and you certainly won't get killed.

FOR the first time in 2-million years, the Taung child's skull is being exhibited publicly.

Intrigued by the enigma of the spokes, which is scantily treated in most stories about Lowell, Dr. Bill Sheehan and Tom Dobbins, amateur astronomers and contributing editors of Sky & Telescope, published a detailed article called "Lowell and the Spokes of Venus" in its July issue. Their article included a little-known fact: to reduce the glare from Venus, the brightest object other than the Moon in the night sky, and to steady the image, Lowell had narrowed the aperture of his 24-inch telescope to only 3 inches or even less. With this information, the authors had unwittingly provided the key to the puzzle of the spokes.

Looking away during an injection really could reduce the pain you feel, new UK research shows.

Next May, Hollow Earth researcher Dallas Thompson is planning to travel from the Arctic to the Antarctic by way of the hole [through the center of the Earth].

The researchers' mathematical analysis showed that a pair of mutations on the Y chromosome, called Eu9, predicted the presence of certain figurines from the Neolithic period with 88 percent accuracy and the presence of painted pottery with 80 percent accuracy. The study is published in the September issue of Antiquity.

Archaeologists hope to rebuild as a tourist attraction a Bronze Age observatory where ancient priests in Germany divined the right days to sow and harvest crops 3 600 years ago.

Dr Mike Mendl and colleagues at the University of Bristol observed social competitive behaviour among pigs of a kind normally seen in apes.

Scientists say mankind will be replaced by giant land squid, flying killer fish and intelligent baboons. Evolution experts have been asked to predict the kind of animals which will be around in the next few million years. The results will feature in a new TV series called The Future is Wild which will get its debut at a film festival in Bristol next month.

Buzz Aldrin has been accused of hitting a man who said his trip to the moon was a hoax. Beverly Hills police are investigating a complaint that Mr Aldrin threw a punch at the man.

Bonn - Scientists working at the famed Neanderthal cave site in Germany on Monday announced the discovery of bones of a large Neanderthal male, a "petite" Neanderthal adult and a small child - instantly spawning media speculation that the trio could be history's first recorded "cave-man family".

Life colonised the land more than a billion years ago, far earlier than previously thought.

Constanze Fakih says women have a vocabulary of around 23,000 words but men use and recognise only half this number.

"What's happening now is that we've changed the environment that we live in in an incredibly short time - one generation or perhaps two generations at most, and this has challenged our ancient metabolism, which for thousands of generations has been geared to fighting famine."

The potato is said to be shaped like the Lord Ganesha and people are offering money and gifts to seek the blessing of the "divine vegetable".

It was Christmas Day. A young woman named Wong Yee Moi was tapping rubber on an estate in Perak, when she felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to be "confronted by the most revolting female" one could possibly imagine. This she-thing was covered with hair, had white Caucasoid-type skin and long black hair. She wore a loin cloth of bark and stank as if "of an animal."

SEPTEMBER 9, 2002 -- It was reported today that famed anthropologist, Dr. Philip Tobias, a former proponent of the so-called *Savannah Theory* of human origins, has praised the publication of a new book on the *Aquatic Ape Hypothesis* by amateur anthropologist, Craig Hagstrom. "This book makes you think," said Dr. Tobias in reaction to an advance copy of Hagstom's book, *The Passionate Ape.* Suggesting that the Aquatic Ape hypothesis was often rejected "possibly short-sightedly," Dr. Tobias encouraged the reading of Hagstrom's book, "even if you don't like the water, or sex, or evolution, and shudder...at a blend of all three!" These facts were revealed in an essay by Hagstrom, written exclusively for GrahamHancock.com, entitled, "A Narrative for the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis." Hagstrom is GrahamHancock.com's *Guest Expert* for September on The Aquatic Ape Theory. He is available all this month to answer your questions on the AAT, and his book on the subject, on *The Mysteries* message board. -- News Desk, GrahamHancock.com

Since there are so many visual similarities among prehistoric rock art around the world, it's likely that a kind of "primordial mother language," existed as Homo sapiens were getting under way "from which all the spoken languages developed," wrote Emmanuel Anati, founder of the World Archive of Rock Art, in a three-book series published recently by the Val Camonica Center for Prehistoric Studies.

Though she says her colleagues might be intrigued by the questions asked here, many wouldn't grace this annual conference of the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science (IRAS), she says. The reason: Suspicions of religion in academic circles make them "afraid they won't get a grant if people find out they've been here."

In recent studies of rhesus monkeys, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) determined that specific neurons in the monkey's brain are "tuned to" certain numbers, and play a major role in the animal's ability to determine quantities.

An anthropologist has found the nearly complete skeleton of a Neanderthal infant in a French museum, where it was filed away in a drawer and forgotten after its discovery 88 years ago.

Less than 10 per cent of the remaining habitat of the great apes of Africa will be left relatively undisturbed by 2030 if road building, mining camps, and other infrastructure developments continue at current levels, a new report suggests.

New research on tool-using monkeys has revealed that they have a surprising awareness of body image. Laura Spinney explores the implications for our understanding of how human consciousness evolved

The 9th-century stone, possibly a grave marker for an early religious figure, was found by Marjorie Lang in an outhouse of her home at the Kilduncan estate at Kingsbarns.

Archaeologists discovered 23 old Persian coins from the Sassanid era on the southeastern Swedish island of Gotland....The discovery is vivid proof that Vikings did sail as far as the Middle East region.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, on a mission to help save humanity from itself at the Earth Summit, explored mankind's pre-historic roots at a cave site regarded as a cradle of the human race.

Until now the significance of baby talk has been unclear.

The high-flying and super-powerful commercial QuickBird satellite has begun snapping imagery of Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey - in a quest to spot the possible remains of what is believed to be Noah's Ark.

Studies show that even now, most women are not particularly attracted to body builder types. But a moderately muscular guy like actor Brad Pitt, who is also blessed with symmetrical features, is a hit with the ladies. Elizabeth Taylor, Denzel Washington and ancient Egypt's Nefertiti are universally recognized as being full of sex appeal, for the same reason, Rodgers said.

US Listeners, tune your radio dial to Art Bell on September 6th and 7th!

A world-renowned hair expert is on the verge of proving the existence of a "Yeti-like" creature on an Indonesian island.

While enjoying this month's dscussion of Elaine Morgan's Aquatic Ape Hypothesis, don't forget about next month, when we go to the heart of the matter with a featured debate on Darwin's theory of natural selection itself! October's Author of the Month is Richard Harris, author of "Alternative Science," and our featured item, "Shatterng the Myths of Darwinism." Does the Origin of Species lie in the forces of Natural Selection, or is it all based on "myths" so easliy "shattered?" Pick up a copy of Harris' book to read the arguments you havn't heard... ...and join us in October for a heated debate!

"The trouble with all this 'evidence' is that not a single piece of it has any foundation in scientific fact. It is nothing more than urban scientific myth inspired by wishful thinking and self-delusion on the part of a relatively few scientists, dedicated to Darwinism as a fundamental world view -- almost a religion."

TELEVISION viewers around the world will be able to watch this month as a 21st-century robot enters a shaft of the Great Pyramid of Giza to reveal the secrets that lie behind a stone door that has been shut for 4500 years.

Digging under a blazing sun in an Illinois cornfield, archaeologists this summer unearthed a fascinating anomaly: a 900-year-old square hilltop village. The discovery near Shiloh -- about 15 miles southeast of St. Louis -- challenges previous notions of the area's first people and adds a piece to the puzzle that was Cahokia, a huge "mother culture" that suddenly appeared, and just as suddenly vanished, leaving only traces of its majesty and meaning in the 11th century.

Cambridge Bay elders are getting their DNA sampled to see if they're related to ancient Vikings. The DNA being collected is part of a study by an Icelandic scientist, trying to find out what happened to two large communities in Greenland that were abandoned 500 years ago.

Brendan the Navigator is a legend amongst the Irish and Celtic people for many reasons. There are many people throughout the world who would like to see more evidence that the transatlantic voyages of St Brendan could be more than just exaggerated stories.

When Claire Edwards became a doctor, she probably didn't imagine having to treat a ship's goat for a stomach upset...One of the most dramatic moments during the six-week voyage was when a crew member collapsed and had to be airlifted to hospital.

His slide into obscurity was underscored in 1957, when Farnsworth walked away with $80 and a carton of Winston cigarettes after panelists on the television show "I've Got a Secret" failed to identify him.

An infant was born in an American hospital in 1935. The baby did not differ from others: he did the things that all babies do, such as sleep, eat, and dirtying his diapers. Unexpectedly, the baby died. When the body was dissected, it was discovered that the baby did not have a brain!

A self-organising electronic circuit has stunned engineers by turning itself into a radio receiver.

A ring-around of some DNRE veterans soon found the answer. The cause was found to be a simple subterranean fungi, which radiates in almost perfect symmetry as it grows and starves pasture of moisture.

Six centuries have built this sanctuary's fame for healing mental illness, especially in women. Men also worship or seek healing here. But the women and their freedom to express themselves unhindered are what bring the sanctuary its renown.

Australian researchers say they have discovered a new species of owl on an Indonesian island.

An amateur astronomer has created his own observatory out of an old septic tank.

THE thigh bone of a Stone Age woman who ate almost as much meat as a wolf has been found in a dried-up channel of the Trent. It gives archaeologists their earliest look at the development of the British diet.

The famed Noah's Ark of Biblical times could re-emerge in Bulgaria as a tourist attraction, if a Bulgarian historian's ambitious project becomes reality.

Wild cotton has 13 chromosomes. Cotton in the Americas is diploid. It has 13 long chromosomes from the Middle East and 13 short ones from wild South American varieties. Since he wrote about his theories there has been a great deal of investigation of chromosomes of domesticated plants. Studies done by biologists prove Heyerdahl was right. However, books written by anthropologists are still scientifically illiterate. They claim that cotton was domesticated in South America, or even Polynesia!

Some Egyptologists believe the curious shaft may have been designed for religious or numerological reasons. It appears to be aligned with the star Sirius and the constellation Orion.

A court decision has been entered in the Kennewick Man lawsuit (Bonnichsen et.al. v. U.S., Civil No. 96-1481JE, District of Oregon). In a 73 page opinion released this afternoon, the federal trial court set aside former Interior Secretary Babbitt's decision to classify the 9400 year-old Kennewick Man skeleton as Native American and to give it to a coalition of Columbia River Indian claimants. The court has also ruled that the suing scientists will be allowed to study the skeleton and that the Army Corps violated the National Historic Preservation Act when it buried the skeleton's discovery site.

At least one scholar believes they have found the grave of the leader of the Qumran sect, whom the Dead Sea scrolls call the "Teacher of Righteousness".