Mass grave in London reveals how volcano caused global catastrophe
When archaeologists discovered thousands of medieval skeletons in a mass burial pit in east London in the 1990s, they assumed they were 14th-century victims of the Black Death or the Great Famine of 1315-17. Now they have been astonished by a more explosive explanation – a cataclysmic volcano that had erupted a century earlier, thousands of miles away in the tropics, and wrought havoc on medieval Britons.
Scientific evidence – including radiocarbon dating of the bones and geological data from across the globe – shows for the first time that mass fatalities in the 13th century were caused by one of the largest volcanic eruptions of the past 10,000 years. |  |
Palm trees 'grew on Antarctica'
Scientists drilling deep into the edge of modern Antarctica have pulled up proof that palm trees once grew there.
Analyses of pollen and spores and the remains of tiny creatures have given a climatic picture of the early Eocene period, about 53 million years ago. The study in Nature suggests Antarctic winter temperatures exceeded 10C, while summers may have reached 25C. Better knowledge of past "greenhouse" conditions will enhance guesses about the effects of increasing CO2 today. |  |
Moon born out of cosmic head-on: study
A new twist in the theory of how the moon formed claims Earth was the victim of a cosmic hit and run, and the offender may still be out there.
Most scientists believe a Mars-sized planet collided with Earth about 4.5 billion years ago. The impact destroyed the impactor, causing most of its core to sink and merge with the Earth's core, while lighter materials were blasted into orbit to form the Moon. However isotopic oxygen ratios on the lunar surface are identical to those on Earth, implying they came from the same source and not a planetary collision. |  |
The key to life on Mars may well be found in Chile
When Nasa's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) lands its rover, Curiosity, on Mars on Monday it will be the latest in a series of missions to the red planet that began more than three decades ago. The MSL mission isn't a search for life. Curiosity will sniff for chemicals that could be relevant to life, but it won't be looking for biological organisms as such.
Why is this? Given the huge public interest in life on Mars, why doesn't Nasa just go and look for it directly? |  |
Mankind 'only a decade away' from Mars landing
A probe the size of a small car will hurtle through the Martian atmosphere at 13,000mph early on Monday morning using engineering which, if successful, could lay the path for the first manned Mars landing.
Using a giant £1.67 billion heat shield, the world’s biggest supersonic parachute and eight rocket thrusters, scientists hope Curiosity, a super robot kitted out with 17 cameras and dozens of sampling instruments, will be the test of technological prowess needed to prove an astronaut could eventually descend on the Red Planet in the future. “If we had the motive, if it was important enough I would say within 10 years we could be there,” Adam Steltzner, the lead mechanical engineer for the entry, told The Daily Telegraph. |  |
Stunning Images of the Curiosity Rover’s Martian Playground
The Curiosity rover is about to finally begin its mission on Mars, after years – decades, depending on who’s telling the story – of instrument development and mission planning. One key aspect of that planning was the selection of the mission’s landing site. The target is Gale Crater, a 154-kilometer diameter impact crater that formed between about 3.5 and 3.8 billion years ago.
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Curiosity’s Chances? Most Mars Missions Crash, Burn or Disappear
Mars is a hard place to reach. While there have been many notable success stories in getting probes to the Red Planet, the historical record is full of bad news.
Counting all Soviet/Russian, U.S., European, and Japanese attempts, more than half of Mars missions have failed, either because of some botched rocket launch on Earth or a systems malfunction en route to or at the planet. The success rate for actually landing on the Martian surface is even worse, roughly 30 percent. |  |
Opinions on Global Warming Shift with the Weather
A heat wave is not proof of global warming, but it does seem to help convince people that global warming is real, survey data indicates.
On the flip side, surveys show cool temperatures can make Americans less convinced there is "solid evidence" the planet is heating up. The new study based on five national surveys of American adults sponsored by the Pew Research Center in June, July and August 2006, January 2007 and April 2008. Respondents were asked: "From what you've read and heard, is there solid evidence that the average temperature on Earth has been getting warmer over the past few decades, or not?. |  |
Dinosaur Boom Linked to Rise of Rocky Mountains
The evolution of new dinosaur species may have surged due to the rise of the Rocky Mountains and the emergence of a prehistoric inner sea in North America, researchers say.
Duck-billed and horned dinosaurs flourished in North America, reaching a peak about 75 million years ago, a time known as the Campanian. For instance, one Campanian region known as the Dinosaur Park formation in what is now Canada saw seven different duck-billed dinosaur species and five horned dinosaur species emerge. A comparable region known as the Hell Creek formation in the United States from the Maastrichtian, the time that led up to the end of the Age of Dinosaurs 65 million years ago, saw only a single duck-billed dinosaur species and maybe three horned dinosaur species at most. |  |
Deep-Sea Squids Use Never-Before-Seen Defensive Tactic
Dr Stephanie Bush, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Rhode Island, has discovered a never-before-seen defensive strategy used by a small species of deep-sea squid in which the animal counter-attacks a predator and then leaves the tips of its arms attached to the predator as a distraction.
“When the foot-long octopus squid Octopoteuthis deletron found deep in the northeast Pacific Ocean ‘jettisons its arms’ in self-defense, the bioluminescent tips continue to twitch and glow, creating a diversion that enables the squid to escape from predators,” explained Dr Bush, who authored the paper in the July issue of the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series. |  |
Study reveals harmful effects of compact fluorescent light bulbs to skin
Inspired by a European study, a team of Stony Brook University researchers looked into the potential impact of healthy human skin tissue (in vitro) being exposed to ultraviolet rays emitted from compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs. The results, “The Effects of UV Emission from CFL Exposure on Human Dermal Fibroblasts and Keratinocytes in Vitro,” were published in the June issue of the journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology.
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Eyes Reveal Sexual Orientation
Whether you're gay, straight or somewhere else on the spectrum, the truth of who attracts you could be in your eyes.
Pupil dilation is an accurate indicator of sexual orientation, a new study finds. When people look at erotic images and become aroused, their pupils open up in an unconscious reaction that could be used to study orientation and arousal without invasive genital measurements. |  |
As drought widens, 50.3% of U.S. counties declared disaster areas
More than half of the counties in the United States have been designated as disaster areas mainly because of the ongoing drought that has been ravaging the nation, officials announced Wednesday.
Disaster designations were signed for 218 more counties in 12 states, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced. That brings this year's total to 1,584 counties in 32 states; more than 90% of those designations are due to drought conditions. |  |
Listen: The Rare, Beautiful Songs of Bowhead Whales
The haunting sounds of bowhead whales, which sing their songs under Arctic ice through long, dark polar winters, have been recorded in unprecedented detail.
The recordings reveal a vocal repertoire every bit as rich as better-studied humpback and sperm whales, and hint at complex social organizations and lifestyle patterns hidden until now by the bowheads’ extreme remoteness. “We know relatively little about bowhead whales. A lot of that has to do with the fact that they’re Arctic whales, found in the high, ice-covered north,” said oceanographer Kate Stafford of the University of Washington. “This data gives us a window into a world that’s largely inaccessible. |  |
Bats Incredible: The Mystery of Rabies Survivorship Deepens
Until recently, a human rabies infection was considered inescapably fatal. But a teenage girl who defied this death sentence eight years ago has had doctors and scientists debating how she survived ever since. And now a surprising report from remote Amazonia is adding to the mystery.
In our feature for Wired this month, we explore the controversy over the Milwaukee Protocol: an experimental treatment regimen for rabies that may have saved the teenage girl in 2004 and five more patients since then. But many top rabies scientists still doubt whether the treatment method, which involves inducing a medical coma, is the best way to treat rabies patients. Central to their doubts is the question of whether some humans might well have been surviving rabies without treatment all along. No other disease kills every single human it afflicts, after all. And studies in dogs and bats have shown that those rabies carriers, who almost always die from the infection, nevertheless will occasionally survive. |  |
Swiss sheep to warn shepherds of wolf attacks by SMS
Using sheep to alert shepherds of an imminent wolf attack by text message might sound fanciful, but testing is already under way in Switzerland where the predator appears to be back.
"It's the first time that such a system has been tried outdoors," said biologist Jean-Marc Landry, who took part in testing on a Swiss meadow this week. In the trial, reported by the country's news agency ATS, around 10 sheep were each equipped with a heart monitor before being targeted by a pair of Wolfdogs -- both of which were muzzled. |  |
Clive Palmer, Australian Billionaire, Denies Plans For Real-Life Jurassic Park
Rumors are running wild that a real-life Jurassic Park is in the works, but after the man behind the project has denied the claims, only one question remains: Will life find a way?
Australian billionaire Clive Palmer has reportedly been discussing plans to make a theme park based on the 1993 film "Jurassic Park" that would feature real-life genetically cloned dinosaurs, the Gold Coast Bulletin reports (h/t The Daily Mail). The idea may seem outlandish, but it wouldn't be the first time the man worth an estimated $8 billion made some larger-than-life dioramas; he's already commissioned a replica of the Titanic from a Chinese shipbuilder that's slated to be done by 2016. |  |
Secret UFO files released
It is probably the closest Australia has come to scrambling fighter jets to intercept a UFO.
Documents that have just become available under the 30-year rule at the National Archives of Australia reveal how two RAAF Mirage jets were placed on the second highest level of alert to determine the cause of unidentified radar contacts seen on screens at Mascot. The ''X Files'' viewed in Canberra also give details of other unexplained sightings, some of which are supported by witness statements to police. |  |
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