The remote Pacific islands of Tokelau have become the first territory in the world to generate their electricity entirely from solar energy, in a project hailed as an environmental milestone.
Before the solar power grid was completed, the New Zealand-administered grouping of three coral atolls, with a population of just 1,500, relied on diesel generators for electricity. |  |
New "Sauron" Dinosaur Found, Big as T. Rex
Named after the demonic Eye of Sauron from the Lord of the Rings films, a new species of flesh-ripping dinosaur terrorized North Africa some 95 million years ago, a new study says.
The species—Sauroniops pachytholus, or "eye of Sauron" in Greek—was identified from a single fossil unearthed in southeastern Morocco in 2007. That fossil included only part the upper skull—including the eye socket, study leader Andrea Cau, of the Museo Geologico Giovanni Capellini in Bologna, Italy, said by email. |  |
International study suggests a massive black hole exists in the Sword of Orion
An international team of astrophysicists, including UQ's Dr Holger Baumgardt, has shed light on the long-standing mystery of the binding force behind a cluster of unruly and rapidly swirling stars located in the famous Sword of Orion.
Using sophisticated computer modelling programs, the team found these fast-moving stars, visible in the night sky and known as the Orion Nebula Cluster, were potentially held together through the powerful gravitational pull of a black hole up to 200 times the mass of the sun. Formed one or two million years ago, the Orion Nebula Cluster has long been known for its strange properties. |  |
When Ants Get Together to Make a Decision
When ants are confronted with information overload and face too many decisions -- about where to live, for instance -- they revert to the wisdom of the crowd.
Despite having a brain smaller than the point of a pin, one ant species uses an elaborate system of sending out scouts to look for new homes. The scouts report back, and then the whole colony votes, according to researchers at Arizona State University. The ants use chemistry and crowdsourcing, wrote associate professor of biology Stephen C. Pratt and graduate student Takao Sasaki at Arizona State University, in the current issue of Current Biology. |  |
2011 Virginia quake triggered landslides at extraordinary distances
The 2011 Mineral, Virginia M-5.8 earthquake was felt over an extraordinarily large area. A new study details landslides triggered by the earthquake at distances four times greater and over an area 20 times larger than previously documented for M-5.8 earthquakes worldwide.
The study, to be published in the December issue of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (BSSA), describes physical confirmation of previous observations that ground shaking from earthquakes in the eastern U.S. travels farther than in the western U.S, a plate-boundary region. |  |
Humans Smell Fear, and It's Contagious
Humans can smell fear and disgust, and the emotions are contagious, according to a new study.
The findings, published Nov. 5 in the journal Psychological Science, suggest that humans communicate via smell just like other animals. "These findings are contrary to the commonly accepted assumption that human communication runs exclusively via language or visual channels," write Gün Semin and colleagues from Utrecht University in the Netherlands. |  |
British have invaded nine out of ten countries - so look out Luxembourg
Britain has invaded all but 22 countries in the world in its long and colourful history, new research has found.
Every schoolboy used to know that at the height of the empire, almost a quarter of the atlas was coloured pink, showing the extent of British rule. But that oft recited fact dramatically understates the remarkable global reach achieved by this country. A new study has found that at various times the British have invaded almost 90 per cent of the countries around the globe. The analysis of the histories of the almost 200 countries in the world found only 22 which have never experienced an invasion by the British. |  |
Marijuana legalization passes in Colorado, Washington
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Voters in Washington and Colorado passed ballot initiatives Tuesday to legalize marijuana for recreational use, the biggest victory ever for the legalization movement.
"The significance of these events cannot be understated," said NORML, a pro-legalization organization, in a news release. "Tonight, for the first time in history, two states have legalized and regulated the adult use and sale of cannabis." But in many ways, it's just the beginning of the battle. Marijuana is still illegal in the eyes of the federal government, which overrules states' rights. |  |
Bigfoot Bounty: Spike TV Offers $10 Million For Irrefutable Proof
What would it take to get you interested in heading to remote wooded areas of America to try and prove the existence of the legendary creature known as Bigfoot? How about $10 million dollars.
Spike TV is offering the largest cash prize in television history for its new reality show, "10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty." Hoping to whet the appetites of Bigfoot hunters everywhere, the cable television channel has partnered with the international insurance market, Lloyd's of London, to put teams of explorers on the track of the elusive, tall, hairy, human-like animals that allegedly live in the wilderness areas of North America. |  |
Yeti expert defends lack of sightings as row erupts over his claims
A row has erupted in Russia over a biological scientist's claim that some 200 Yeti live in a large area of southern Siberia.
Professor Valentin Sapunov has infuriated academics with his assertion that scientific tests, including DNA checks, found that hair samples from a remote cave belonged to a human-like mammal unknown to man. Now he has gone further by claiming a population of 200 Yeti exist in the forested Kemerovo, Khakassia and Altai regions of Siberia. This number allows them to successfully reproduce, said the academic from the Russian State HydroMeteorological University. |  |
Redheads may be at higher risk of melanoma even without sun
Doctors have long urged people with red hair, fair skin and freckles to avoid the sun and its damaging ultraviolet rays. To venture outdoors without a wide-brimmed hat and sunscreen was simply courting skin cancer, they cautioned.
Now, however, a study in mice suggests that those among us with ginger hair and fair complexions face an elevated risk of the disease even when covered up. The study, published online Wednesday in the journal Nature, suggests that the same reddish-yellow pigment that gives rise to rusty locks and an inability to tan is itself a potential trigger in the development of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. |  |
Blind mole rats may hold key to cancer
Rodents' cells commit mass suicide when overcrowded, preventing uncontrollable proliferation.
There's more than one way for long-lived subterranean rodents to avoid cancer, and they might hold cellular clues to effective treatments in humans. Cell cultures from two species of blind mole rat, Spalax judaei and Spalax golani, behave in ways that render them impervious to the growth of tumours, according to work by Vera Gorbunova at the University of Rochester in New York and her colleagues1. And the creatures seem to have evolved a different way of doing this from that observed in their better known and similarly cancer-resistant cousin, the naked mole rat (Heterocephalus glaber). |  |
Extraordinary New Sponge Species Discovered
The new species is named the harp sponge, or Chondrocladia lyra, because its basic structure is shaped like a lyre or harp.
Typically, sponges feed by straining bacteria and bits of organic material from the seawater they filter through their bodies. However, C. lyra is a deep-sea predator. Harp sponges snare their prey – tiny crustaceans – with barbed hooks that cover the sponge’s branching limbs. Once the harp sponge has its prey in its clutches, it envelops the animal in a thin membrane, and then slowly begins to digest it. |  |
Mammoth Skeleton Discovered Near Paris
It turns out Paris has not only been the long-standing destination of choice for lovers, artists and tourists, but also for shaggy pre-historic elephants. French archeologists say they have marked a milestone after diggin up a rare complete skeleton of a mammoth along the Changis-sur-Marne riverbanks near Paris.
Researchers at the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) told AFP Tuesday that the remains, which date back to some 200,000-500,000 years ago, include a femur, a complete pelvis, jawbones and four connected vertebrae. They christened the animal “Helmut” and said it was in its 20s at the time of its death, AFP reported. |  |
Dragon-Like, Feathered Dinosaur Was Ace Flyer
Why would a dinosaur with a body built for running have four wings and a long, feathered tail—and how did it use them? Paleontologists have long puzzled over the dragon-like anatomy of the tiny, carnivorous dinosaur called Microraptor that hunted in the forests of China 130 million years ago.
Finally, anatomists think they've found an answer: This crow-size dromaeosaur was a master of control. Whether it was gliding or flapping through the air, its hind wings would have let it turn on a dime.
Finally, anatomists think they've found an answer: This crow-size dromaeosaur was a master of control. Whether it was gliding or flapping through the air, its hind wings would have let it turn on a dime.
NASA helping build spacecraft — just so it can be demolished
Work is under way to create a spacecraft that won't be rocketed into outer space but will be purposely destroyed on the ground.
DebriSat is a 110-pound (50 kilograms) satellite that's a double for a modern low-Earth orbit spacecraft in terms of its components, materials used, and fabrication procedures. But once fabricated and tested, DebriSat is doomed. |  |
Near-Earth Asteroid Loses Its Magnetic Mojo
An asteroid that zooms inside the orbit of Venus has lost its magnetic mojo, perhaps after clearing out the debris along its orbital path, a new study reports.
Three decades ago, NASA's Venus Pioneer Orbiter noticed that the near-Earth asteroid 2201 Oljato caused a flurry of magnetic activity whenever it arrived inside Venus' orbit. But more recent observations by the European Space Agency's Venus Express probe don't pick up the odd phenemonon, researchers said. |  |
Future Mars missions: Can humans actually trump robots?
For decades scientists have backed the idea of sending robots to collect Martian rocks and return them to Earth, a project that should be possible well before humans crunch their boots into the distant dunes of the Red Planet.
The idea of landing, scooping up, and hauling back to our world specimens from that intriguing globe has long been endorsed as the Holy Grail of precursor missions by Mars exploration planners. |  |
Scientists offer quantum theory of soul's existence
A pair of world-renowned quantum scientists say they can prove the existence of the soul.
American Dr Stuart Hameroff and British physicist Sir Roger Penrose developed a quantum theory of consciousness asserting that our souls are contained inside structures called microtubules which live within our brain cells. Their idea stems from the notion of the brain as a biological computer, "with 100 billion neurons and their axonal firings and synaptic connections acting as information networks". |  |
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