Papua New Guinea charges 29 alleged cannibals
Madang Police Commander Anthony Wagambie confirmed a report in The National newspaper that said the cult members allegedly ate their victims' brains raw and made soup from their penises.
"They don't think they've done anything wrong; they admit what they've done openly," Wagambie told The Associated Press by telephone. He said the killers believed that their victims practised "sanguma," or sorcery, and that they had been extorting money as well as demanding sex from poor villagers for their supernatural services. |  |
Fossils show ocean rise risk
Sea levels may rise much higher than previously thought, according to scientists from The Australian National University, who have used fossil corals to understand how warmer temperatures in the past promoted dramatic melting of polar ice sheets.
Dr Andrea Dutton, formerly of the Research School of Earth Sciences (RSES) in the ANU College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, teamed up with Professor Kurt Lambeck of the RSES to analyse fossil corals around the world from the last interglacial period, 125,000 years ago. |  |
Free access to British scientific research within two years
The government is to unveil controversial plans to make publicly funded scientific research immediately available for anyone to read for free by 2014, in the most radical shakeup of academic publishing since the invention of the internet.
Under the scheme, research papers that describe work paid for by the British taxpayer will be free online for universities, companies and individuals to use for any purpose, wherever they are in the world. In an interview with the Guardian before Monday's announcement David Willetts, the universities and science minister, said he expected a full transformation to the open approach over the next two years. |  |
New 'Iron Age' discoveries made in Inverness
New discoveries made in Inverness have fuelled speculation among experts that it was an important area of prehistoric iron production.
Rare finds of well-preserved metalworking hearths, or furnaces, have been uncovered at Beechwood during work by Edinburgh-based AOC Archaeology. Archaeologists believe the discoveries date to the Iron Age. Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) is spending £25m on preparing the land for the new Inverness Campus. |  |
Sharks Now More Likely to Attack Humans?
Surfer Ben Linden this weekend became Western Australia's fifth shark attack fatality in just 10 months, with experts now wondering if shark behavior is changing, such that the often-enormous predators are more likely to go after humans.
Twenty-four-year-old Linden of Osborne Park near Perth was surfing near Wedge Island. Jet skier Matt Holmes watched as the shark bit into Linden "like it was eating a seal," Surf on Grind TV reported. "It just threw its body out of the water for this guy. I turned and looked back at my mate, and I just thought, 'Is this real?'" |  |
Too Much TV at Age 2 May Cut Athletic Ability Later On
Lots of time spent in front of a TV early in life may have lasting consequences, indicates a study that connected the viewing habits of Canadian toddlers with waist circumference and muscular fitness later in childhood.
Using data collected periodically for 1,314 kids participating in the Québec Longitudinal Study of Child Development, researchers found increases in TV viewing starting when kids were 29 months old were linked to reduced jumping ability in second grade and bigger waist circumferences in fourth grade. |  |
The World’s Last Worm: A Dreaded Disease Nears Eradication
A parasite that has plagued the human race since antiquity is poised to become the second human disease after smallpox to be eradicated. “We are approaching the demise of the last guinea worm who will ever live on earth,” says former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, whose Carter Center has spearheaded the eradication effort.
Unlike polio's high-profile eradication program, the mission to eliminate guinea worm disease has largely been off the public's radar. |  |
Engineering Technology Reveals Eating Habits of Giant Dinosaurs
High-tech technology, traditionally usually used to design racing cars and aeroplanes, has helped researchers to understand how plant-eating dinosaurs fed 150 million years ago.
A team of international researchers, led by the University of Bristol and the Natural History Museum, used CT scans and biomechanical modelling to show that Diplodocus -- one of the largest dinosaurs ever discovered -- had a skull adapted to strip leaves from tree branches. |  |
Asteroid Mining Takes A Giant Leap Forward --"Launches New Space Era"
Planetary Resources, Inc., the asteroid mining company, has announced an agreement with Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic's "LauncherOne” (above) to provide launch capability for the Arkyd series of robotic low-Earth orbit (LEO) space telescopes for the exploration and commercial development of Near-Earth Asteroids. LauncherOne uses the WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft to launch an orbital booster which delivers about 225 Kg to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). That’s enough payload to launch about 8 Arkyd-100 satellites.
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Does It Matter If Black Holes Are Popping into Existence around Us All the Time?
It may well have been the liveliest hour and a half I’ve ever spent in the company of theoretical physicists. In April, during a workshop I was attending on black holes, Bill Unruh gave a talk that challenged his colleagues on a point almost all of them thought had been settled in the mid-1980s. His colleagues challenged him back. The room throbbed with debate. At most conferences I’ve been to, one speaker presents his or her ideas, the next speaker presents his or her ideas, which might be exactly the opposite, nobody responds to what any else says, and nothing gets resolved. Everyone shuffles off to lunch, leaving onlookers not knowing what to think. Well, I still don’t know what to think of Unruh’s arguments, but it was invigorating to see great minds engage with one another.
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The UFO Files: aliens 'might come here for holidays
Documents from the Ministry of Defence classified archives show staff believed aliens could visit for “military reconnaissance”, “scientific” research or “tourism”.
In a 1995 briefing now published by the National Archives, a desk officer said the purpose of reported alien craft sightings “needs to be established as a matter of priority”, adding there did not appear to be “hostile intent”.
The unnamed official said it was “essential that we start with open minds”, explaining “what is scientific ‘fact’ today may not be true tomorrow”.
In a 1995 briefing now published by the National Archives, a desk officer said the purpose of reported alien craft sightings “needs to be established as a matter of priority”, adding there did not appear to be “hostile intent”.
The unnamed official said it was “essential that we start with open minds”, explaining “what is scientific ‘fact’ today may not be true tomorrow”.
Friends’ UFO abduction claim sparked secret military probe
UFO investigators launched a top-level probe into claims two men were abducted by aliens in the Capital.
The legendary story told by Garry Wood and Colin Wright, who said they were examined by extraterrestrials after their van was ambushed by a flying saucer, is being turned into a film starring Billy Boyd. |  |
Space workers struggle a year after last shuttle
TITUSVILLE, Fla. — A year after NASA ended the three-decade-long U.S. space shuttle program, thousands of formerly well-paid engineers and other workers around the Kennedy Space Center are still struggling to find jobs to replace the careers that flourished when shuttles blasted off from the Florida "Space Coast."
Some have headed to South Carolina to build airplanes in that state's growing industry, and others have moved as far as Afghanistan to work as government contractors. Some found lower-paying jobs beneath their technical skills that allowed them to stay. Many are still looking for work and cutting back on things like driving and utilities to save money. |  |
Should Pluto’s Planet Status Be Reinstated? Not Yet
Last week, astronomers identified a fifth moon–named P5 for now–orbiting Pluto in images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The moon is a mere 6 to 15 miles in diameter and orbits in a 58,000-mile-diameter circular orbit around the dwarf planet. “The [five] moons form a series of neatly nested orbits, a bit like Russian dolls,” said team lead Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute.
The finding of P5 has some again questioning Pluto’s demotion to dwarf planet status. New Scientist reports: The discovery provides some ammunition for those upset at Pluto’s demotion from the planetary ranks. “If you are important enough to have acquired five satellites, you are a planet!” says Kevin Baines, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. |  |
How Pluto Got Its Moons
With the announcement last week that astronomers have found a fifth moon orbiting around Pluto, the dwarf planet's system got a little more crowded. Of course, Pluto hasn't gained a new moon; we're just getting better at finding the satellites already out there.
Finding moons of a planet that far away isn't easy. It's taken astronomers a long time to find Pluto's moons, and there's likely more to find. |
Is Huge Mars Rover NASA's Last Big Mission to Red Planet?
Despite NASA's tough budget situation, the 1-ton rover streaking toward an Aug. 5 landing on Mars is unlikely to be the space agency's last big, ambitious Red Planet mission.
Funding cuts have forced NASA to shelve plans for future multibillion-dollar "flagship" planetary missions beyond the $2.5 billion Curiosity rover, which will investigate Mars' potential to host past or present microbial life after it touches down three weeks from now. For the time being, the space agency is looking for ways to explore the Red Planet on the cheap. |  |
Future Mars Rover May Use Bigger Parachute and Atomic Clocks
FARNBOROUGH, England — A possible rover mission to Mars within the next eight years may rely on a larger parachutes, atomic clocks and inflatable decelerators, NASA's Mars exploration chief says.
With a large NASA rover only weeks away from arriving at the Red Planet, NASA's Doug McCuistion outlined ideas for another, far less expensive Martian mission in 2018 or 2020. |  |
Moon patterns explained
Scientists have charged up an old moon mystery. New research suggests that swirling designs on the dusty lunar surface might be the product of electric fields generated by pockets of magnetic bubbles.
“People have been looking at these strange, mysterious structures since the invention of the telescope,” says physicist Ruth Bamford of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Didcot, England. “Now we know exactly how they are made.”. |  |
Nuclear operator to release secret Fukushima tapes
Former Japanese prime minister Naoto Kan, who was in office during the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns, has told the ABC he believes the plant's operator has been hiding key evidence.
For months TEPCO has resisted pressure to release critical recordings, arguing they are in-house material and to release them would compromise the privacy of those on the tapes.
For months TEPCO has resisted pressure to release critical recordings, arguing they are in-house material and to release them would compromise the privacy of those on the tapes.