Science news to shake up your world views…
- The Dalai Lama made for an interesting guest speaker at the Society for Neuroscience’s annual meeting after research results suggested that meditating monks had actually altered the structure and function of their brains.
- Two new lakes found 2+ miles beneath Antarctic ice sheet, second only in size to Lake Vostok.
- New technique finds Earth-like planet 20,000 light-years away.
- NASA official joins search for extraterrestrial life.
- Modified gravity theory with quantum effects dispenses with dark matter.
- Russia to mine Helium-3 on the moon by 2020.
- Scientists say there is a place for God in the Universe.
- Neandertals hunted as well as humans.
- Pennsylvania hunters hoping to stalk deer with Stone Age spear-throwers may get their chance later this year.
- Vikings first Europeans to file their teeth, possibly learned during their travels over vast distances.
- Hundreds of saliva samples may reveal the disputed origins of Christopher Columbus, according to a genetic investigation aimed at finding possible distant descendants of the admiral’s family.
- Peru’s battle for Machu Picchu’s history.
- A toothless, two-legged crocodile ancestor that walked upright and had a beak instead of teeth was stumbled upon in the basement of New York’s American Museum of Natural History.
- Scientists find world’s smallest fish, a strange creature in a tropical acidic swamp. No word on whether they cleaned it or threw it back.
- New research on why some bacteria carry around magnetic crystals has undermined the long-held idea that they use their internal compasses to find up and down.
- Scientists solve puzzle of flu virus replication.
- Mountaineers have warned of changes to the soil on Scottish summits because of an increase in people scattering the ashes of loved ones.
- 2005 warmest year on record even without El Niño.
- Wave and tidal power could provide a fifth of the UK’s electricity needs.
- Engineer’s rocket powered bike goes 0 to 60 mph in five seconds.
- Use your brain, halve your risk of dementia.
- Study finds test subjects on both sides of the political aisle reached totally biased conclusions by ignoring information that could not rationally be discounted.
- Sex before public speaking calms nerves.
- Well-connected medium has message or 2 for Valley mortals.
Thanks Thommes. Also, thanks to thefloppy2 for the quote.
Quote of the Day:
The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd.
Bertrand Russell
