Scientists have discovered a new smell, but you may have to go to a laboratory to experience it yourself.
The smell is dubbed "olfactory white," because it is the nasal equivalent of white noise, researchers report today (Nov. 19) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Just as white noise is a mixture of many different sound frequencies and white light is a mixture of many different wavelengths, olfactory white is a mixture of many different smelly compounds. |  |
Can You Help Spies Crack ‘Impossible’ WWII Pigeon Code?
The best of the British code breakers have apparently met their match in a WWII-era secret message recently discovered attached to the leg of a long-dead pigeon.
Cryptographers at Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the spy agency in charge of signals intelligence, have been analyzing the short handwritten message for weeks but threw up their hands Friday, saying it will be impossible to decode “without access to the original cryptographic material.” |  |
Where did it go? Scientists 'undiscover' Pacific island
Most explorers dream of discovering uncharted territory, but a team of Australian scientists have done the exact opposite. They have found an island that doesn't exist.
"Even onboard the ship, the weather maps the captain had showed an island in this location." -Dr Maria Seton, University of Sydney The island, named Sandy Island on Google Earth, also exists on marine charts and world maps and allegedly sits between Australia and New Caledonia in the south Pacific. But when the voyage's chief scientist, Maria Seton, and her crew sailed past where the island should be, they found nothing but blue ocean. |  |
Drained Wetlands Give Off Same Amount of Greenhouse Gases as Industry
Drained wetlands in Sweden account for the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions as Swedish industry. This is shown by a summary of research from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.
Forests and agricultural fields on drained previous wetlands make up between five and ten percent of Sweden's surface area. When these wetlands are drained, they become a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions.
Forests and agricultural fields on drained previous wetlands make up between five and ten percent of Sweden's surface area. When these wetlands are drained, they become a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions.
Trees worldwide a sip away from dehydration
Trees in most forests, even wet ones, live perilously close to the limits of their inner plumbing systems, a global survey of forests finds.
Seventy percent of the 226 tree species in forests around the world routinely function near the point where a serious drought would stop water transport from their roots to their leaves, says plant physiologist Brendan Choat of the University of Western Sydney in Richmond, Australia. Trees even in moist, lush places operate with only a slim safety margin between them and a thirsty death. |  |
Tomb of Renaissance Warrior Reveals Mystery Amputation
A noble-but-brutal Renaissance warrior who fell to a battle wound may not have died exactly as historians had believed, according to a new investigation of the man's bones.
Italian researchers opened the tomb of Giovanni dalle Bande Nere, or Giovanni of the Black Bands, this week to investigate the real cause of his death. Giovanni was born in 1498 into the wealthy and influential Medici family, a lineage that produced three Popes and two regent queens of France, among many other nobles (Another branch of the family, the Medicis of Milan, boasted a fourth Pope). He worked as a mercenary military captain for Pope Leo X (one of the Medici family's Popes), and fought many a successful skirmish in his name. When Pope Leo X died in 1521, Giovanni altered his uniform to include black mourning bands, earning him his nickname. |  |
Hittites ahead of their time in dam building
A dam unearthed during excavation work in the northern Anatolian province of Corum reveals that the dam construction techniques of the ancient past are similar to the techniques used today, according to archaeologists.
“We excavated the area but could not unearth the dam completely. This dam was built 3,250 years ago but with the same technique used today. They used clay instead of cement. It is important for us because even the Hittites understood 3,250 years ago that it was not possible to live in Anatolia without constructing a dam,” said Professor Aykut Cinaroglu, who heads the excavations at Alacahoyuk. |  |
Bigfoot 'spotted' in Tunbridge Wells by terrified walker
The beast, nicknamed the 'Kentish Apeman', was spotted recently on the town's famous 200-acre common amid a spate of sightings over the past six months.
A man said he was confronted by the creature, which had 'red demonic eyes and was covered in hair', three weeks ago as he was walking home. He said the beast roared at him in exactly the same spot it was apparently first seen more than 70 years ago, before he ran away. |  |
Giant penguin fossils found in Antarctica
Argentine experts have discovered the fossils of a two-meter (6.5 foot) tall penguin that lived in Antarctica 34 million years ago.
Paleontologists with the Natural Sciences Museum of La Plata province, where the capital Buenos Aires is located, said the remains were found on the icy southern continent. |  |
Birds Descended from Gliding Dinosaurs
Evidence is mounting that modern birds descended from gliding, feathered non-avian dinosaurs.
Two dinosaurs could be candidates for the bottom of the bird family tree, and each helps to reveal how feathers first evolved. "The oldest known feathered dinosaurs would be Anchiornis (155 million years ago) and Epidexipteryx (between 152 million and 168 million years ago)," Yale University paleontologist Nicholas Longrich told Discovery News. "Feathers seem to have appeared initially for insulation. Basically they start out as down, and later are used to make wings.". |  |
Most ocean species remain undiscovered
Up to a million species live in the seas, and two-thirds of those ocean-dwellers may still be undiscovered, according to a new study that also cataloged all of the known species that dwell beneath the waves.
The findings, published today (Nov. 15) in the journal Current Biology, suggest that the oceans remain a vast, uncharted territory. The new registry could help guide marine conservation efforts by giving scientists a universal way to describe the underwater creatures.
The findings, published today (Nov. 15) in the journal Current Biology, suggest that the oceans remain a vast, uncharted territory. The new registry could help guide marine conservation efforts by giving scientists a universal way to describe the underwater creatures.
Ancient Mariners: Did Neanderthals Sail to Mediterranean?
Neanderthals and other extinct human lineages might have been ancient mariners, venturing to the Mediterranean islands thousands of years earlier than previously thought.
This prehistoric seafaring could shed light on the mental capabilities of these lost relatives of modern humans, researchers say. |  |
Scientists improve dating of early human settlement
A Simon Fraser University archaeologist and his colleagues at the University of Queensland in Australia have significantly narrowed down the time frame during which the last major chapter in human colonization, the Polynesian triangle, occurred.
SFU professor David Burley, Marshall Weisler and Jian-Xin Zhao argue the first boats arrived between 880 and 896 BC. The 16-year window is far smaller than the previous radiocarbon-dated estimate of 178 years between 2,789 and 2,947 years ago.
SFU professor David Burley, Marshall Weisler and Jian-Xin Zhao argue the first boats arrived between 880 and 896 BC. The 16-year window is far smaller than the previous radiocarbon-dated estimate of 178 years between 2,789 and 2,947 years ago.
Marriage proposal carved in rock at historic quarantine site
Archaeologists are known for discovering tombs, pyramids, paintings and gold treasures, but now two researchers report the discovery of something rather different, and newer — a marriage proposal, carved in stone.
Etched in large letters on a sandstone outcrop just south of a decommissioned quarantine station in Manly, Australia (a suburb of Sydney), it reads: "Rebecca will you marry me? Tim."
Etched in large letters on a sandstone outcrop just south of a decommissioned quarantine station in Manly, Australia (a suburb of Sydney), it reads: "Rebecca will you marry me? Tim."
What made us human: 'unique' evolution gene found
SMH.COM.AU
Researchers have discovered a new gene they say helps explain how humans evolved from apes.
The gene, called miR-941, appears to have played a crucial role in human brain development and could shed light on how we learned to use tools and language, according to scientists.
A team at the University of Edinburgh compared it to 11 other species of mammals, including chimpanzees, gorillas, mice and rats.
The gene, called miR-941, appears to have played a crucial role in human brain development and could shed light on how we learned to use tools and language, according to scientists.
A team at the University of Edinburgh compared it to 11 other species of mammals, including chimpanzees, gorillas, mice and rats.
Test that can predict death - with a terrifying degree of accuracy
A blood test to determine how fast someone is ageing has been shown to work on a population of wild birds, the first time the ageing test has been used successfully on animals living outside a laboratory setting.
The test measures the average length of tiny structures on the tips of chromosomes called telomeres which are known to get shorter each time a cell divides during an organism’s lifetime. |  |
Cartilage made using hybrid 3D printer
Researchers have developed a way to "print" cartilage that could help treat joint diseases and sporting injuries.
They say that the new material is more robust and hardwearing than previous efforts to create artificial cartilage. A traditional ink-jet printer combined with a specialised spinning-machine is used to make it. |  |
US Military Enlists Amateurs to Track Space Junk
The U.S. military is launching a far-out neighborhood watch. But instead of warding off burglars, these amateur watchdogs are tracking orbital debris and possible satellite collisions in Earth orbit.
The sky-monitoring project, called SpaceView, is a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program that enrolls the talents of amateur astronomers to help protect American space assets from orbital trash. |  |
4 more years! Kepler's planet-hunting mission extended
NASA's planet-hunting Kepler Space Telescope has begun its extended mission, which should keep the prolific instrument searching for alien worlds for another four years, agency officials announced Wednesday.
Kepler officially embarked upon the extended mission after completing its 3 1/2-year prime mission, which aimed to determine how common Earth-like planets are throughout the galaxy. The extended phase, which NASA announced this past April, funds the instrument through at least fiscal year 2016. |  |
Hovering moon base may be on NASA's horizon
Just a day after US President Barack Obama was re-elected, rumours began to fly that he will back NASA plans to build a hovering moon base. This lunar outpost would be parked in orbit, about 60,000 kilometres from the moon's far side, in a gravitational haven called a Lagrange point.
There, the combined gravity of Earth and the moon would tug on a spacecraft with exactly the force needed for it to hover near the moon without spending fuel. Putting a spaceport at the Earth-moon Lagrange point 2 (EML-2) might assist human missions to an asteroid or to Mars – both on the list of NASA goals Obama announced in 2010. |  |
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