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PARIS (AFP) – It took 13 billion years to reach Earth, but astronomers have seen the light of an exploding mega-star that is the most distant object ever detected, two studies published Thursday reported. The stunning gamma-ray burst (GRB) was observed by two teams of researchers in April, and opens a window onto a poorly known period when the Universe was in its infancy.

<p>Wonder at the impressive technological prowess of the genius engineers at NASA, as brave Ares launches. Be amazed at the sheer beauty of the mighty rocket as it it breaks the sound barrier, thundering the skies of this glorious nation.</p> <p>OK, so it looks like a flying condom.</p>

People with gene variant perform more than 20 percent worse on driving test Bad drivers may in part have their genes to blame, suggests a new study by UC Irvine neuroscientists. People with a particular gene variant performed more than 20 percent worse on a driving test than people without it - and a follow-up test a few days later yielded similar results. About 30 percent of Americans have the variant. "These people make more errors from the get-go, and they forget more of what they learned after time away," said Dr. Steven Cramer, neurology associate professor and senior author...

When it comes to beauty products, sometimes ignorance is bliss. Snake venom, bird droppings, snail serum, cow dung and whale vomit are but a few of the industry's extreme and off-putting ingredients that one might be shocked to know can be slathered about your body. Hair products are no exception to this somewhat creepy phenomenon. Consumers hoping for a hair miracle are willing to pay extra for deep conditioners and conditioning "treatments" that promise an enviable crowning glory -- even when they contain rather odd-seeming ingredients such as placenta, caviar and hemp. Pushing the limits, Hari's, a well-known "celebrity" salon...

When I was a kid, I remember a certain yearly Halloween ritual that didn't involve candy, costumes or door-to-door trick-or-treating. My father and I would walk down to the end of our driveway, screwdrivers in hand, and remove our mailbox from its post. After several years of living in our house in suburban Westchester County in New York, my father had decided that our mailbox had simply taken enough abuse. Every Halloween, the mischief-making teens in our neighborhood would fill all the mailboxes on our road with a variety of goopy, stinky material, including rotten eggs, shaving cream, toilet paper,...

U.S. and international air forces are becoming interested and open to utilizing off-the-shelf equipment in low-intensity, counter-insurgency and counter-drug operations in remote areas. The U.S. Navy is already evaluating an armed version of Embraer’s EMB-314 Super Tucano under a classified evaluation program known as ‘Imminent Fury’. The Navy is currently evaluating a single aircraft and is seeking a budget of $44 million to embark on a larger program. The Special Operations Command, Air Force and US Marine Corps are also interested in employing off the shelf assets for low-intensity Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance and rapid target engagement. Armed Super Tucanos...

Those of you who have gazed on the various images I've posted here will remember that I have a particular fondness for columnar basalt: the geological formation found at Devil's Tower, the Devil's Postpile, Svartifoss waterfall in Iceland, New York's Palisades, Giant's Causeway in Iceland, etc. There's actually a good list here, with some I hadn't known about before (I know, what a surprise!) Basalt Now, this picture and this feature might not constitute actual unusual geology; in fact, itÂ’s probably rather conventional, though it does result from a fortuitous combination of geological processes; and as you might guess, it...

Mikhail Simonov, designer of the iconic fighter jets Su-27 and Su-30, has been at the forefront of aircraft design for more than 50 years. To celebrate his 80th birthday this month, we hear from the man who gave Russia the edge in aerial combat.

IMAGE: Most indoor household dust that collects on furniture and floors actually comes from outdoors, a new study finds. Where does it come from? Scientists in Arizona are reporting a surprising answer to that question, which has puzzled and perplexed generations of men and women confronted with layers of dust on furniture and floors. Most of indoor dust comes from outdoors. Their report is scheduled for the Nov. 1 issue of ACS' Environmental Science & Technology, a semi-monthly journal. In the study, David Layton and Paloma Beamer point out that household dust consists of a potpourri that includes dead skin...

"Climate Change" is good. It brings the 4 seasons. "Global Warming" gave us the nothern states and Canada. Now the FACTS are, the Climate has been in a cooling cycle for 12 years now. Here in central California at 7:45 A.M. this morning the air temperature was 5 degrees above freezing or 37 F. Carbon tax that morons.

Chimp dies, others mourn. Interesting picture and story.

A butterfly species equipped with tiny ears on its wings can distinguish between high and low pitch sounds, possibly as a way to listen in on nearby birds, new research suggests. Scientists thought butterflies were deaf until 1912 when the first butterfly ears were identified. Only in the past decade or so have researchers examined the anatomy and physiology of butterfly ears, which they are finding to be quite diverse and present in several butterfly species. The latest discovery was made with the blue morpho butterfly (Morpho peleides), which dazzles with its bright-blue wing coloration when it flits about in...

Today we will attempt to launch the Space Shuttle replacement again... "today's launch is the first test of the Ares I rocket NASA is designing to carry astronauts after the space shuttle is retired. The unmanned test rocket, called Ares I-X, is powered only by a four-segment shuttle solid rocket booster. Everything above that is a mock-up." Wednesday October 28, 2009 6:46 James Dean

Japan's Tokai Challenger solar vehicle has taken victory against a strong international field in the 2009 Global Green Challenge. After covering almost 1860 miles (3000km) in four days across Australia's baking red center, the entry from Japan's Tokai University crossed the finish line at 3.39pm local time. The team's run was nearly flawless, reporting only a single flat tire with just over 100 miles of the course to race and the win breaks a string of four consecutive victories by the Dutch Nuon team, which is currently battling it out for second place against University of Michigan Solar Car Team....

Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great in 331 B.C. The city sits on the Mediterranean coast at the western edge of the Nile delta. Its location made it a major port city in ancient times; it was also famous for its lighthouse (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) and its library, the largest in the ancient world. But in the past few years, scientists have found fragments of ceramics and traces of lead in sediments in the area that predate Alexander's arrival by several hundred years, suggesting there was already a settlement in the area (though...

GPS device can track children Updated: Tuesday, 27 Oct 2009, 12:13 AM EDT Published : Tuesday, 27 Oct 2009, 12:13 AM EDT KELLY JOYCE | FOX 35 News ORLANDO, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - A GPS device the size of your pinky finger is about to hit store shelves and the web. Some parents say it's a good way to keep track of children given all of the children disappearing in central Florida. The "insignia little buddy tracker" is a Best Buy brand GPS system that's about to hit store shelves. It's already drawn so much interest it's on back...

The original makers of Côtes-du-Rhône are said to have descended from Greek explorers who settled in southern France about 2500 years ago... The study, by Prof Paul Cartledge, suggested the world's biggest wine industry might never have developed had it not been for a "band of pioneering Greek explorers" who settled in southern France around 600 BC. His study appears to dispel the theory that it was the Romans who were responsible for bringing viticulture to France. The study found that the Greeks founded Massalia, now known as Marseilles, which they then turned into a bustling trading site, where local...

Egypt's chief archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, announced that his country wanted its queen handed back forthwith, unless Germany could prove that the 3,500-year-old bust of Akhenaten's wife wasn't spirited illegally out of Egypt nearly a century ago... Then he said he was sure the work had been stolen... Mr. Hawass also recently fired a shot at France, demanding the Louvre return five fresco fragments it purchased in 2000 and 2003 from a gallery and at auction. They belonged to a 3,200-year-old tomb near Luxor and had been in storage at the museum. Egypt had made the demand before, but this time...

NEW SPECIES PICTURES: 850 Underground Creatures Found The newfound blind cave fish Milyeringa veritas, seen above, inhabits the same Cape Range aquifers as a blind cave eel found during the same survey of Australia's underground habitats. The only blind cave fish known in Australia, the 2-inch-long (5.1-centimeter-long) species is "remarkably versatile," living in freshwater or seawater in underground coastal regions during various stages of its life, researchers say."

Dinosaur experts in Dorset, England, are examining the fossilized skull of a sea monster so large they say it could have eaten a Tyrannosaurus rex for breakfast.

Man can indeed create life, vitalism arguments laid to restThroughout the centuries vitalism remained the dominant philosophy.  Many reasoned that there was something inherently unique to life, impossible to recreate.  Modern science, however, has shown that the makeup of a living organism is nothing more than a complex mix of biochemicals. Now a major scientific breakthrough has been made that may have profound impact on scientific research, and even how we view life itself.  John Craig Venter, founder of the The Institute for Genomic Research and the J. Craig Venter Institute, has, at last, achieved what he has been trying...

Two physicists who debunk global warming as a result of man - made carbon emissions.

LONDONDERRY TOWNSHIP, DAUPIN COUNTY - The Three Mile Island Nuclear Power station shut down its unit one reactor on Monday capping off a record run. The unit one reactor broke the world record for the longest continuous days of operation for all pressurized water reactors. The Dauphin County based plant operated for 705 days before shutting down for a scheduled refueling and maintenance outage on Monday. The old record of 692 days was set earlier this year by a nuclear power plant in Maryland. "We don't really set out to break world records, but they're a result of what we...

The fossilised skull of a colossal "sea monster" has been unearthed along the UK's Jurassic Coast. The ferocious predator, which is called a pliosaur, terrorised the oceans 150 million years ago. The skull is 2.4m long, and experts say it could belong to one of the largest pliosaurs ever found: measuring up 16m in length. The fossil, which was found by a local collector, has been purchased by Dorset County Council. It was bought with money from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and it will now be scientifically analysed, prepared and then put on public display at Dorset County Museum. Palaeontologist...

Drainage work in the construction of the second runway has been moved as a resultThe oldest Phoenician remains yet to be found in Málaga have been unearthed at the airport as land was moved as part of the construction of the second runway.

“There is a likely chance of tsunami waves reaching the shores of Israel,” says Dr. Beverly Goodman of the Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences at the University of Haifa following an encompassing geo-archaeological study at the port of Caesarea. “Tsunami events in the Mediterranean do occur less frequently than in the Pacific Ocean, but our findings reveal a moderate rate of recurrence,” she says. Dr. Goodman, an expert geo-archaeologist, exposed geological evidence of this by chance. Her original intentions in Caesarea were to assist in research at the ancient port and at offshore shipwrecks. “We expected to find...

No matter what conclusions one gravitates towards regarding climate change and potential solar impacts, the data is irrefutable: the sun is slowly becoming more active. The 10.7cm radio flux spiked in late September with its highest reading in 18 months; now, and this is very significant compared to the pattern since March 2008, it has spiked again, exceeding the late September number and reaching a Cycle 24 maximum of 76.9. This is still a very low value compared to the solar maximum flux numbers, which routinely exceed 200. However, it is an upward move from the “basement” numbers of the...

Meet the newest odd couple of the animal kingdom: the giant female and tiny male of the largest web-spinning spider known to science: Nephila komaci. The female of the species has a leg span of up to 5 inches (12 centimeters), while the male—which spends much of its time clambering on its partner's back—barely reaches an inch (2.5 centimeters), a new study says.Part of a well-known group of golden orb-weaver spiders—which can spin webs up to three feet (one meter) wide—N. komaci was first identified in a South African museum collection in 2000. But it wasn't until a 2007 field...

The tiniest dinosaur in North America weighed less than a teacup Chihuahua, a new study says. Seen above as an artist's reconstruction in front of a Tyrannosaurus rex skull at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County in California, the agile Fruitadens haagarorum was just 28 inches (70 centimeters) long and weighed less than two pounds (one kilogram). The diminutive dinosaur likely darted among the legs of larger plant-eaters such as Brachiosaurus and predators such as Allosaurus about 150 million years ago, during the late Jurassic period. Parts of the skulls, vertebrae, arms, and legs from four F. haagarorum...

LONDON (Reuters) – The amazing eyes of a giant shrimp living on Australia's Great Barrier Reef could hold the key to developing a new type of super high-quality DVD player, British scientists said on Sunday. Mantis shrimps, dubbed "thumb splitters" by divers because of their vicious claws, have the most complex eyes in the animal kingdom. They can see in 12 primary colors, four times as many as humans, and can also detect different kinds of light polarization -- the direction of oscillation in light waves.

BUENOS AIRES N.W.R., Arizona | Michael M. Hawkes, manager of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, reaches across his desk and pulls out a homemade blue-and-red bumper sticker that reads, "Littering is always a crime." It turns out that here on the U.S.-Mexico border, even that is a controversial statement — because it's aimed at the humanitarian groups that drop gallon jugs of water on public lands to help illegal immigrants crossing the rugged borderlands.

Gene Therapy Transforms Eyesight Of 12 People With Rare Visual Defect A single injection in a patient's eye brings 'astounding' results. The findings may offer hope for those with macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. Thomas H. Maugh II October 24, 2009 Pennsylvania researchers using gene therapy have made significant improvements in vision in 12 patients with a rare inherited visual defect, a finding that suggests it may be possible to produce similar improvements in a much larger number of patients with retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration. The team last year reported success with three adult patients, an achievement that was...

Being billed as the most comprehensive exhibition about the Vandal civilisation ever, a new show about the notorious Germanic tribe opens on Friday at Baden's state museum in Karlsruhe.The word “vandal” these days is associated with acts of senseless violence and destruction. However, this new exhibition explores the history behind the actual Vandals, a Germanic civilisation that stretched across Eastern Europe to North Africa in the 5th century. "The Vandal Kingdom" hopes to offer visitors a new perspective on this unfamiliar culture and infamous word. > Despite the Vandals' terrible reputation, Wenzel said the violence they administered across much of...

A section of Dublin's 900-year-old Viking city wall has been put on public view for the first time at the city council's civic offices on the Southside. When the Viking settlement site -- built in the 10th century AD near Christchurch Cathedral -- was first excavated over 30 years ago it caused huge controversy. The city wall at the time was earmarked for demolition and storage at another site but thousands of people demanded that the historically important area be preserved from a development that was designed to house the Dublin City civic offices. Measuring just under 20 metres in...

Research examining microscopic marks on the teeth of the "Lucy" species Australopithecus afarensis suggests that the ancient hominid ate a different diet than the tooth enamel, size and shape suggest, say a University of Arkansas researcher and his colleagues. Peter Ungar, professor of anthropology, will present their findings on Oct. 20 during a presentation at the Royal Society... "The Lucy species is among the first hominids to show thickened enamel and flattened teeth," an indication that hard, or abrasive foods such as nuts, seeds and tubers, might be on the menu, Ungar said. However, the microwear texture analysis indicates that...

A Japanese man misdiagnosed as having rectal cancer is suing the hospital that he says unnecessarily gave him an artificial rectum. The man, who has not been identified, underwent surgery to remove a tumor in March at a university hospital in Miyzaki prefecture, western Japan. Following the surgery, his doctor informed him that no cancerous cells had been found in the removed tissue. The complainant is seeking 35 million yen (USD $385,000) in damages.

Humans were living and thriving on open grassland in Africa as early as 2 million years ago, making stone tools and using them to butcher zebra and other animals... All of the other earlier hominins that have been found in the geological record -- such as Ardipithecus ramidus and Australopithecus afarensis -- known as Ardi and Lucy, respectively -- lived either in dense forest or in a mosaic of woodland, shrub and grasses, says Plummer... Plummer's team first started excavating Kanjera South in the 1990s, in search of primitive toolkits consisting of hammer stones, stone cores that were struck to...

KASHIHARA, Nara Pref. (Kyodo) Archaeologists showed to the media Thursday a stone chamber that was excavated at an ancient tomb near Nara and is believed to date back to the late third to early fourth centuries. The red-colored chamber measures 6.75 meters long, 1.2 meters wide and 1.7 meters high, and forms the core part of the Sakurai Chausu-yama burial mound in Sakurai, Nara Prefecture. The Nara Prefectural Kashihara Archaeological Institute restarted research on the chamber earlier this year to look into its structure. The tomb is believed to be that of a nobleman in the early years of the...

The discovery of 17 wooden statues at Chan Chan are enough to change our understanding of the Chan Chan urban centre. Embedded in the walls of the later Ñain An complex, also known as Bandelier, the figures are thought to have bid farewell to the deceased leaders.

A team of Spanish and Portuguese researchers has carried out molecular genetic analysis of the Y chromosome (transmitted only by males) of the aboriginal population of the Canary Islands to determine their origin and the extent to which they have survived in the current population. The results suggest a North African origin for these paternal lineages which, unlike maternal lineages, have declined to the point of being practically replaced today by European lineages... Although contribution is now mainly European, scientists state that North African and Sub-Saharan contribution was higher in the 17th and 18th centuries. The explanation as to why...

The Batavians, who lived in the Netherlands at the start of the Christian era were far more Roman than was previously thought. After just a few decades of Roman occupation, the Batavians had become so integrated that they cooked, built and bathed in a Roman manner. Dutch researcher Stijn Heeren... studied excavated artefacts and traces of settlements and burial fields in the neighbourhood of Tiel. In Dutch history, the Batavians are often presented as a brave people who resisted a cruel oppressor. But Stijn Heeren has now demonstrated that these 'simple people' also adopted a lot of Roman customs. According...

Ancient human remains have been unearthed during an archaeological dig at the Caythorpe Gas Storage site between Rudston and Boynton. Five human burials... One set of remains dates to the late Iron Age and had been buried with a simple iron brooch. Another dates back probably to the Anglo-Saxon period and had been buried with an iron knife. Archaeologists have also found evidence of a settlement at the site, including an Iron Age round house and at least one Anglo-Saxon building. Other finds recovered include a Roman brooch, an Anglo-Saxon coin, large fragments of a millstone and numerous fragments of...

First, not totally exactly geology, but one of the more amazing iceberg pictures I've ever seen: Next, an offering from Patrick Smith Photography (I had one of these before): this one won some awards and was on the cover of a photography magazine: Finally, Marion Island from space: click for full-size

A new shapeshifting chemical robot being developed for Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the US Army has been unveiled by Pentagon researchers. ChemBot is a small mobile device that looks like a gelatinous blob, it can change shape to navigate through tight spaces and will be used by the army for intelligence gathering, and search and rescue missions. The chemical robot moves from place to place by way of a process called 'jamming' which causes the material to transition between semi-liquid and semi-solid states with only a slight change in volume. Jamming technology allows the scientists to make...

It was billed as one of the most important fossil finds in history, a “missing link” that would challenge everything we knew about human evolution. Darwinius masillae, the primitive primate that was unveiled to the world with huge fanfare and a Sir David Attenborough documentary in May, seems now to have been less of a missing link than an evolutionary dead end. Far from being an ancestor to humans, the lemur-like creature from 47 million years ago belongs to an entirely different branch of the primate family tree that has left no known descendants, research has indicated. When Jørn Hurum,...

Females of the Australian redback spider, one of the world's most poisonous spiders and a close relative to the black widow, demand 100 minutes of courting or else they usually cannibalize their male suitors, research finds. Proving that bigger isn't always better in the mating game, the tiniest of males sometimes approach female redbacks after offering the critical 100 minutes of wooing and successfully mate without being eaten, according to the paper in the latest Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The study shows that puny males of this species can win at love without exerting much effort and begins...

Here's some important information for anyone thinking about upgrading to Microsoft's new Windows 7 on an existing machine, or using an existing device or peripheral (such as a printer or camera) with a new Windows 7 PC. Microsoft today released a new version of its Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor, which scans a computer to see if it can run the new operating system; along with a Windows 7 Compatibility Center, letting you see if your devices will work with Windows 7. Although many people will get Windows 7 when they buy new PCs, the automated Windows 7 Upgrade Adviser will...

A publicity blitz called it "the link" that would reveal the earliest evolutionary roots of monkeys, apes and humans. Experts protested that Ida wasn't even a close relative.

Maglev is environmentally friendly and eliminates the need for fossil fuels in transporting goods.Cal State Long Beach was awarded in September $245,000 by the U.S. Department of Transportation to support the engineering department for research on magnetic levitation technologies. Magnetic levitation, or maglev, is a form of transportation technology that eliminates the need for any type of fossil fuel because it uses electricity and a system of powerful magnets to lift and propel. The CSULB engineering department is working with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories to develop a maglev system to be used for moving goods and other cargo. This system...

The exceptionally well-preserved fossil primate known as "Ida" is not a missing link as some have claimed, according to an analysis in the journal Nature. The research is the first independent assessment of the claims made in a scientific paper and a television documentary earlier this year. Dr Erik Seiffert says that Ida belonged to a group more closely linked to lemurs than to monkeys, apes or us. His team's conclusions come from an analysis of another fossil primate. The newly described animal - known as Afradapis longicristatus - lived some 37 million years ago in northern Egypt, during the...