A BRITISH scientist has stumbled upon a treasure trove of Charles Darwin's work in a gloomy corner a building where it lay undiscovered for more than 150 years. - Dr Howard Falcon-Lang, a paleontologist at Royal Holloway, University of London, said today that glass slides containing important Darwin fossils were in an old wooden cabinet that had been shoved in a "gloomy corner" of the massive, drafty British Geological Survey. Using a flashlight to peer into the drawers and hold up a slide, Falcon-Lang saw one of the first specimens he had picked up was labelled "C. Darwin Esq". "It took me a while just to convince myself that it was Darwin's signature on the slide," the paleontologist said, adding he soon realised it was a "quite important and overlooked" specimen. He described the feeling of seeing that famous signature as "a heart in your mouth situation," saying he was wondering "Goodness, what have I discovered". Falcon-Lang's find was a collection of 314 slides of specimens collected by Darwin and other members of his inner circle, including John Hooker - a botanist and dear friend of Darwin - and the Rev John Henslow, Darwin's mentor at Cambridge, whose daughter later married Hooker.

A newly discovered form of chemical intermediary in the atmosphere has the ability to remove pollutants in a way that leads to cloud-formation and could potentially help offset global warming.

The existence of these so-called Criegee biradicals, which are formed when ozone reacts with a certain class of organic compounds, was theorized over fifty years ago, but they have now been created and studied in the laboratory for the first time.

According to Science Daily, the discovery was made possible through the use of a third-generation synchrotron at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory which produces an intense, tunable light that enables scientists to differentiate between molecules which contain the same atoms but arranged in different combinations. The Criegee biradicals — named after Rudolph Criegee, who postulated their existence in the 1950′s — turn out to react with pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, much more rapidly than expected to form sulphates and nitrates. “These compounds,” Science Daily explains, “will lead to aerosol formation and ultimately to cloud formation with the potential to cool the planet.”

Cygnus X, one of the most active regions in the Milky Way
(NASA/Reuters/ScanPix)

Most of the stars in the Milky Way have Earthlike planets meaning there are billions of potentially habitable worlds in our galaxy, a new study claims.

By scouring millions of stars in the night sky over six years, researchers found that the majority of the 100 billion stars in the Milky Way have planets similar to Earth or Mercury, Venus or Mars, the other similar planets in our solar system. They estimated that in our galaxy there are about 10 billion stars with planets in the "habitable zone" – the distance from the star where solid planets can be found – many of which could in theory be capable of supporting life. Dr Martin Dominik, a German research fellow at St Andrews University, said: "Even if life existed on only one planet in each galaxy there would still be 100 billion in the universe. "We still don't have the evidence of life on another planet, and we could be unique, but confronted with these numbers it seems highly unlikely. "There are a small number of planets which we think could harbour life, a small number of candidates with what we believe might be the right conditions."

LuluP's Photo stream (flickr)

Experts say they have confirmed for the first time the precise origin of some of the rocks at Stonehenge.

It has long been suspected that rhyolites from the northern Preseli Hills helped build the monument. But research by National Museum Wales and Leicester University has identified their source to within 70m (230ft) of Craig Rhos-y-felin, near Pont Saeson. The museum's Dr Richard Bevins said the find would help experts work out how the stones were moved to Wiltshire.

For nine months Dr Bevins, keeper of geology at National Museum Wales, and Dr Rob Ixer of Leicester University collected and identified samples from rock outcrops in Pembrokeshire to try to find the origins of rhyolite debitage rocks that can be found at Stonehenge.

By detailing the mineral content and the textural relationships within the rock, a process known as petrography, they found that 99% of the samples could be matched to rocks found in this particular set of outcrops.

Rhyolitic rocks at Rhos-y-felin, between Ffynnon-groes (Crosswell) and Brynberian, differ from all others in south Wales, they said, which helps locate almost all of Stonehenge's rhyolites to within hundreds of square metres. Within that area, the rocks differ on a scale of metres or tens of metres, allowing Dr Bevins and Dr Ixer to match some Stonehenge rock samples even more precisely to a point at the extreme north-eastern end of Rhos-y-felin.

Dr Rob Ixer of Leicester University called the discovery of the source of the rocks "quite unexpected and exciting".

UNESCO: Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites

The depiction of the rich and cold-hearted Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens classic “A Christmas Carol” is backed up with scientific evidence, according to researchers at the University of California at Berkeley. - The researchers found that people in lower socio-economic classes are more physiologically attuned to the suffering of others than their middle- and upper-class counterparts. The current study builds upon a similar one published in Psychological Science in 2010. That study found that people of upper-class status have trouble recognizing the emotions other people are feeling. People of lower-class status do a much better job.

The ill-fated Phobos-Grunt probe that got stuck in the orbit after an unsuccessful launch will fall to Earth on January 11, probably affecting four continents, the US Strategic Command shared its latest forecast. - The current orbit of the vehicle suggests that it could collide with the surface on a vast part of the globe, from latitude 51.4°N to latitude 51.4°S. anywhere in Africa, Australia, Japan, North America or southern part of Western Europe, but definitely not on the larger part of the Russian territory. A more-or-less exact prognosis on the coordinates of the crash can only be made several hours before the collision. According to the previous forecast, the probe was due to enter atmosphere on January 9.

NASA scientists have identified a new planet they believe to have several similarities to Earth. - Kepler-22b, named for the Kepler planet-hunting telescope it was spotted with, is the first planet to be confirmed beyond our solar system in what the Guardian called the "Goldilocks zone": not too hot, not too cold, and therefore possibly habitable. The planet is 2.4 times the size of Earth. It orbits a star similar to the Earth's sun and is believed to have a surface temperature of around 22 degrees Celsius, according to NASA. Astronomers say Kepler-22b's temperate climate makes it possible that it possesses liquid water, CNN reported. Kepler program scientist Douglas Hudgins described the discovery as "a major milestone on the road to finding Earth's twin." NASA still does not know what the planet is made of, however; it could be predominantly rock, gas or liquid. Scientists have "no idea" about the typical composition of planets of this size, Kepler deputy science team lead Natalie Batalha said, since there is no precedent in our own solar system. Since Kepler-22b is about 600 light years - or 3,600 trillion miles - from Earth, the chances of any earthlings ever making it there are slim.

Discover Magazine: Kepler confirms first planet found in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star!

A very informative documentary about the real cause of global warming. It clearly discuss about the fact that CO2 is not cause of global warming. Take a look also at the Great Global Warming Swindle and Green House Conspiracy in google video. This documentary discusses many topics that are not covered in the Swindle such as the hockey stick graph, from the viewpoint of Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas.

How do you capture a raven's heart? Arrest its attention by showing it a twig or stone. Ravens use referential gestures – one of the foundations of human language – to initiate relationships.

From an early age we learn to use referential gestures such as pointing to direct another's attention. "People think that this pointing forms the basis of language," says Simone Pika at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen, Germany. "It has also been linked with mental-state attribution – the idea that you understand what I am pointing out." Apes raised in captivity can learn to use referential gestures to communicate with their human caregivers. Now Pika and Thomas Bugnyar at the University of Vienna, Austria, have recorded common ravens (Corvus corax) using them for the first time.

The researchers observed seven pairs of wild ravens showing and offering stones, twigs and moss to each other – by holding the object in their beaks – in an apparent attempt to grab the attention of another bird and initiate a relationship. Importantly, the ravens made these gestures only when another bird was watching, and the items they show and offer are not food. They usually gesture only to members of the opposite sex.

Like humans, ravens form monogamous pairs that will defend a territory and raise their young together. They even develop a repertoire of vocalisations that are exclusive to the couple.

MSNBC: No flipping the bird, but ravens do make 'hand' gestures

Teams from the Sakha Republic's mammoth museum and Japan's Kinki University will launch fully-fledged joint research next year aiming to recreate the giant mammal, Japan's Kyodo News reported from Yakutsk, Russia.

By replacing the nuclei of egg cells from an elephant with those taken from the mammoth's marrow cells, embryos with mammoth DNA can be produced, Kyodo said, citing the researchers. The scientists will then plant the embryos into elephant wombs for delivery, as the two species are close relatives, the report said. Securing nuclei with an undamaged gene is essential for the nucleus transplantation technique, it said. For scientists involved in the research since the late 1990s, finding nuclei with undamaged mammoth genes has been a challenge. Mammoths became extinct about 10,000 years ago. But the discovery in August of the well-preserved thigh bone in Siberia has increased the chances of a successful cloning.

A new study by USC Annenberg researchers Stacy Smith (pictured), Marc Choueiti and Stephanie Gall surveys the top 100 grossing movies of 2009 and shows Hollywood’s addiction to films that marginalize and sexualize women is as strong as ever. - The study, "Gender Inequality in Popular Films," can be found here (PDF). Perhaps most troubling were the findings about young teen characters. Professor Smith and her research team of undergraduate students found the same prevalence of sexually revealing clothing and partial nudity in female characters in all age groups from 13 to 39. In fact, 13- to 20-year-olds were just as likely as 21- to 29-year-olds to be depicted that way. The survey found 33.8 percent of female teen characters were seen in sexy clothing, and 28.2 percent were shown with exposed skin in the cleavage, midriff or upper thigh regions. For male teen characters, the numbers were drastically lower – 5.3 percent shown in sexy clothing and 11.2 percent showing skin. Sexualizing a significant portion of women this age may contribute to males viewing girls and women as “eye candy” at younger and younger ages, Smith said. “Viewing sexualized images of females in film may contribute to self-objectification in some girls or women, which – in turn – may increase body shame, appearance anxiety and have other negative effects,” she said.

Process of human conception...

After crunching ice-age climate numbers, Oregon researchers and colleagues from Harvard, Princeton, Cornell and Barcelona came up with two encouraging conclusions about future global warming.

The planet appears less sensitive to carbon dioxide changes than expected, their study says, so extreme temperature increases in the near future appear highly unlikely. And future warming may also be less than predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007, particularly at the upper end of the "likely" range.

The study, funded by the National Science Foundation's paleoclimate program, drew on the known extent of ice sheets in the past and levels of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide taken from air trapped in Antarctic ice cores. Researchers also mapped ice-age temperatures based on pollen levels on land and concentrations of temperature-sensitive microorganisms in the ocean. Schmittner and colleagues then ran a climate computer model at different "climate sensitivities" -- the climate's reaction to greenhouse gas levels -- to see which sensitivities best pinpointed actual ice-age temperatures.

Their conclusion: The climate appears less sensitive to greenhouse gases than prior estimates. Based on the computer runs, doubling carbon concentrations would likely increase the world's average temperature from 3.1 to 4.7 degrees Fahrenheit over preindustrial levels, the study predicts. That's lower than the IPCC's likely temperature range for a doubling of carbon dioxide: 3.6 to 8.1 degrees. And it's a far cry from increases of up to 18 degrees held out as low probability possibilities. The study also concludes that increases greater than 11 degrees from a doubling of C02 "should be assigned near-zero probability." Computer runs using such severe climate sensitivity modeled the globe as entirely covered in ice during the ice age, the study said. Schmittner said the actual number was closer to 10 percent.

Finding that contradicts Einstein's theory of special relativity is repeated with fine-tuned procedures and equipment. - The scientists who appeared to have found in September that certain subatomic particles can travel faster than light have ruled out one potential source of error in their measurements after completing a second, fine-tuned version of their experiment. Their results, posted on the ArXiv preprint server on Friday morning and submitted for peer review in the Journal of High Energy Physics, confirmed earlier measurements that neutrinos, sent through the ground from Cern near Geneva to the Gran Sasso lab in Italy 450 miles (720km) away seemed to travel faster than light. The finding that neutrinos might break one of the most fundamental laws of physics sent scientists into a frenzy when it was first reported in September. Not only because it appeared to go against Albert Einstein's theory of special relativity but, if correct, the finding opened up the troubling possibility of being able to send information back in time, blurring the line between past and present and wreaking havoc with the fundamental principle of cause and effect.

[Image 1 of 13] Air traffic routes are shown between North America and Europe. Felix Pharand-Deschenes has created global snapshots depicting how power lines, roads and even air traffic corridors have come to dominate the surface of Earth. His visualisations based on real data show air traffic routes, the underwater cables that carry the internet, road and rail networks and electricity transmission lines all superimposed over cities at night.

These mosquitoes are genetically engineered to kill — their own children. - Researchers on Sunday reported initial signs of success from the first release into the environment of mosquitoes engineered to pass a lethal gene to their offspring, killing them before they reach adulthood. The results, and other work elsewhere, could herald an age in which genetically modified insects will be used to help control agricultural pests and insect-borne diseases like dengue fever and malaria. But the research is arousing concern about possible unintended effects on public health and the environment, because once genetically modified insects are released, they cannot be recalled.

Plague germs teased from mediaeval cadavers in a London cemetery have shed light on why the bacterium that unleashed the Black Death was so lethal and spawned later waves of epidemics. - The DNA of Yersinia pestis shows, in evolutionary terms, a highly successful germ to which the population of 14th-century Europe had no immune defences, according to a study published Wednesday in the British journal Nature. It also lays bare a pathogen that has undergone no major genetic change over six centuries.

Physicist languishes in French prison for two years without trial: French intelligence services say he is a dangerous terrorist... family members and colleagues argue that he is a brilliant young physicist singled out because of his academic background. - French intelligence services say that Adlène Hicheur is a dangerous terrorist who was caught plotting attacks in Europe and beyond; family members and colleagues argue that he is a brilliant young physicist singled out because of his academic background. Guilty or innocent, on Saturday Hicheur will have spent two years in detention without trial. Hicheur, now 34, was arrested on 8 October 2009 in his home town of Vienne. At the time, the French-Algerian was a postdoc in high-energy physics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and was working on the LHCb detector at CERN, Europe's premier particle-physics laboratory near Geneva in Switzerland.

Scientists have discovered a hole five times the size of Germany in the ozone layer above the Arctic, allowing harmful ultraviolet radiation to hit northern Canada, Europe and Russia this spring. - The 2 million square kilometre Arctic hole is similar to the hole over the Antarctic, researchers write in the journal Nature, released yesterday. They say 80 per cent of the ozone was lost about 20km (13 miles) above the Arctic and that a prolonged spell of cold weather – when chlorine chemicals which destroy ozone are at their most active – was to blame.

A recent piece in Scientific American highlights a new geo-engineering endeavor being undertaken by UK scientists, who plan to pump toxic sulfate particles into the sky to supposedly thwart natural sunlight back into space, and ultimately prevent the earth from "warming." - The report explains that the Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Change Engineering (SPICE) program (yes, this is a real program that confirms the existence of "chemtrails") has been given $30,000 to build a giant pipe that spews water and sulfates a mile up into the stratosphere. Supported at the end by a giant "stadium-size hydrogen balloon," the pipe will allegedly mimic the effects of a volcanic eruption, which the team building it insists will help to "cool" the earth.

El derrumbe de los tres rascacielos del World Trade Center fue una obra maestra de la demolición controlada / Ésta es la conclusión a la que llegan el doctor Niels Harrit y otros nueve científicos en el artículo "Material Termítico descubierto en los restos del World Trade Center". ¿Podría ser el más audaz ataque terrorista de la historia, una compleja obra maestra de demolición? Esto es lo que el catedrático de química Niels Harrit ha estado preguntando, a raíz de su investigación de los escombros del World Trade Center, que han revelado restos de explosivos. Esta es la tercera entrevista concedida por Niels Harrit en Televisión; las dos primeras se retransmitieron en la TV danesa y esta tercera en Rusia Today.

WASHINGTON — At least 83 people died as human guinea pigs in macabre US research on sexually transmitted diseases in Guatemala in the 1940s, a commission ordered by President Barack Obama concluded Monday. - Nearly 5,500 people were subjected to diagnostic testing and more than 1,300 were exposed to venereal diseases by human contact or inoculations in research meant to test the drug penicillin, the presidential commission found. Within that group, "we believe that there were 83 deaths," said Stephen Hauser a member of the commission, which has pored over 125,000 documents linked to the shocking episode since being set up by Obama last November. Among the 1,300 people exposed to STDs during research between 1946 and 1948, "under 700 received some form of treatment as best as could be documented," Hauser said.

Robert Parry: Guatemala: A Test Tube of Repression

Gore Flings Barnyard Epithet at 'Organized' Climate Change Critics. - Climate skeptics have "polluted" public debate on global warming using the same tactics tobacco companies once employed to deny the health risks of smoking, former Vice President Al Gore said last week.

"Some of the exact same people -- by name, I can go down a list of their names -- are involved in this," Gore said Thursday at an Aspen Institute forum in Aspen, Colo. "And so what do they do? They pay pseudo-scientists to pretend to be scientists to put out the message: 'This climate thing, it's nonsense. Man-made CO2 doesn't trap heat. It's not -- It may be volcanoes.' Bullshit! 'It may be sun spots.' Bullshit! 'It's not getting warmer.' Bullshit!"

The Week: Al Gore's 'expletive-laden' climate change rant

Raw Story: Al Gore compares climate change skeptics to racists - Al Gore continued his criticism of climate change skeptics in an interview with Climate Reality Project collaborator Alex Bogusky on UStream, going as far as to compare them to the racists of the 20th century.

An aerial view of the Amazon river. (F. Lanting/Corbis)

Scientists estimate the subterranean river may be 6,000km long and hundreds of times wider than the Amazon.

Covering more than 7 million square kilometres in South America, the Amazon basin is one of the biggest and most impressive river systems in the world. But it turns out we have only known half the story until now.

Brazilian scientists have found a new river in the Amazon basin – around 4km underneath the Amazon river. The Rio Hamza, named after the head of the team of researchers who found the groundwater flow, appears to be as long as the Amazon river but up to hundreds of times wider. Both the Amazon and Hamza flow from west to east and are around the same length, at 6,000km. But whereas the Amazon ranges from 1km to 100km in width, the Hamza ranges from 200km to 400km. The underground river starts in the Acre region under the Andes and flows through the Solimões, Amazonas and Marajó basins before opening out directly into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.

The Amazon flows much faster than the Hamza, however, draining a greater volume of water. Around 133,000m3 of water flow through the Amazon per second at speeds of up to 5 metres per second. The underground river's flow rate has been estimated at around 3,900m3 per second and it barely inches along at less than a millimetre per hour.

Australian and English researchers may have stumbled upon the world's oldest fossil, presumed to be at least 3.4 billion years old. - The research teams, from the University of Western Australia and Oxford University in England, came across the fossils in Western Australia in a remote part of the state called Strelley Pool. The microscopic fossils include evidence that cells and bacteria lived in an oxygen free world 3.4 billion years ago, when the Earth was still in its early stage of existence. "At last we have good solid evidence for life over 3.4 billion years ago. It confirms there were bacteria at this time, living without oxygen," said Professor Martin Brasier of the Department of Earth Sciences at Oxford. Brasier led the team with David Wacey of the University of Western Australia.

PARIS — Microfossils found in Australia show that more than 3.4 billion years ago, bacteria thrived on an Earth that had no oxygen, a finding that boosts hopes life has existed on Mars, a study published Sunday says. - Researchers from the University of Western Australia and Oxford University say the remains of microbes, located in ancient sedimentary rocks that have triggered debate for nearly a decade, have been confirmed as the earliest fossils ever recorded. The sample came from the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia, a site called Strelley Pool, where the microbes, after dying, had been finely preserved between quartz sand grains. Pilbara has some of the planet's oldest rock formations, set down in the so-called Archean Eon when the infant Earth was a primeval water world, with seas that were the temperature of a hot bath.

Psychologist and social scientist Dacher Keltner says the rich really are different, and not in a good way: Their life experience makes them less empathetic, less altruistic, and generally more selfish.

“We have now done 12 separate studies measuring empathy in every way imaginable, social behavior in every way, and some work on compassion and it’s the same story,” he said. “Lower class people just show more empathy, more prosocial behavior, more compassion, no matter how you look at it.”

Unlike the rich, lower class people have to depend on others for survival, Keltner argued. So they learn “prosocial behaviors.” They read people better, empathize more with others, and they give more to those in need.

Camera spies what could be streams of salt water.

Using a powerful camera on a spacecraft in orbit around the red planet, scientists have spied what may be small streams of salty water flowing on Mars during warm seasons. Scientists have identified seven craters on Mars in which dark, finger-like features appear and seem to flow down slopes or tiny gullies during late spring through summer.

The most plausible explanation is that these features are caused by salty, or briny water.

“We do not have direct detection of water,” said Alfred McEwen, a University of Arizona planetary geologist who led the team that made the discovery. "But these features are clearly associated with warmer temperatures on Mars, and we see them grow incrementally and fade."

Scientists have previously found large deposits of ice at the Martian poles, as well as water vapor in the atmosphere. There's also a wealth of evidence, such as ancient shorelines and river beds, of abundant surface water in Mars' past. But from the standpoint of finding living organisms on Mars today, the existence of water in a liquid form could make a big difference.

Raw Story: "Flowing water" on Mars sparks hunt for ancient life

It was seen as one of the most distressing effects of climate change ever recorded: polar bears dying of exhaustion after being stranded between melting patches of Arctic sea ice. But now the government scientist who first warned of the threat to polar bears in a warming Arctic has been suspended and his work put under official investigation for possible scientific misconduct. Charles Monnett, a wildlife biologist, oversaw much of the scientific work for the government agency that has been examining drilling in the Arctic. He managed about $50m (£30.5m) in research projects.