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3 Most Likely Places for Alien Life in the Solar System

Europa Many would grant Europa a higher potential-life rating than I have, since there’s probably more liquid water here than in all of Earth’s oceans. The downside is that Europa’s vast, salty seas lie beneath roughly 10 miles of ice. Not only is it difficult get a probe beneath this icy armor, but Europa’s oceans are darker than a cave — which means photosynthesis won’t work. However, something down there may subsist on geothermal heat or complex molecules from the surface. Europa possesses a mean radius of 970 miles (1,560.8 km).

Venus A surprise entry in the exobiology sweepstakes is our sister planet, Venus, with its scorching surface temperatures (850 F, or 454 C). The planet is generally assumed to be as sterile as a boiled mule.

But planetary scientist David Grinspoon, astrobiology curator at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, points out that high in the Venusian atmosphere temperatures are refreshingly tolerable. Atmospheric sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide might serve as food for floating microbes. Venus is 7,521 miles wide (12,104 km). 

Callisto and Ganymede I considered these two moons of Jupiter together, as I feel they’re neck-and-neck candidates for biology. Like their more celebrated neighbor Europa, Ganymede and Callistomay have buried, liquid oceans. However, in the case of these two satellite siblings, briny deeps would underlie at least 60 miles (100 km) of rock. Finding inhabitants here is a shovel-ready project for our grandkids. Callisto has a diameter of more than 2,985 miles (4,800 km); Ganymede’s diameter is 3,270 miles (5,262.4 km).

A study shows that Traces of water in moon came from Earth.

Traces of water inside the moon were inherited from ancient Earth, according to a fresh analysis of lunar rocks brought home by US astronauts.

The findings make for a clearer picture of our cosmic neighbour, once viewed as an arid expanse, but now considered a frost-coated rock that holds water throughout.

The latest results come from studies on the most extraordinary samples hauled back from the moon, including green-tinged stone collected by Apollo 15 in 1971, and orange material gathered by Apollo 17 in 1972.

The surprise discovery of the green rock, by Commander Dave Scott and lunar module pilot Jim Irwin, sparked a lengthy debate among the astronauts about the boulder's true colour while Nasa controllers listened in.

Scientists focused on tiny droplets of volcanic glass that were trapped in crystals inside the rocks. The crystals protected the droplets from the violence of eruption, and so preserved in them a snapshot of the moon's ancient interior.

Researchers found evidence for water inside the glass droplets in earlier work but the latest study goes further, showing that the lunar water is chemically identical to that on ancient Earth.

Much of Earth's water is thought to have arrived in meteorites called carbonaceous chondrites that ploughed into the planet as it formed in the early solar system.

According to the leading theory, the moon was created some time later, about 4.5bn years ago, from a hot cloud of debris that was knocked into space when a planet the size of Mars slammed into Earth.

The latest findings suggest the Earth was already damp at the time the moon was created, and that the intense heat of the collision failed to vapourise all of the water. "Some of that water survived the impact, and that's what we see in the moon," said Alberto Saal, a geologist at Brown University.

Scientists can tell roughly where in the solar system water came from by analysing its chemical signature. Water that formed far from the sun contains proportionally more deuterium, a heavy isotope of hydrogen, than water that formed closer to the sun.

When Saal's team studied water in the glass droplets, they found the ratio of deuterium to normal hydrogen was fairly low, and matched that of water found in carbonaceous chondrites. As much as 98% of Earth's water may have come from these primitive meteorites.

"The water in the moon came from the same source that brought the water to Earth, and that was carbonaceous chondrites," Saal told the Guardian.

Carbonaceous chondrites formed in the asteroid belt near Jupiter and are among the oldest objects in the solar system. The findings, reported in the journal Science, rule out comets as the source of the moon's water. Comets form in the farthest reaches of the solar system, and water inside them tends to have a higher ratio of deuterium to hydrogen.

"The new data provide the best evidence yet that the carbon-bearing chondrites were a common source of volatiles in the Earth and the moon, and perhaps the entire inner solar system," said Erik Hauri, a co-author of the study at the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

What would be in the middle of a galaxy?

There are two things in the center of a typical galaxy.

First, there is a much higher density of stars, and gas as well. This is why the center of a galaxy tends to be brighter. This inner region of higher stellar density is called a "galactic bulge". In elliptical galaxies, which don't have spiral arm structures and instead have a more uniform appearance there is still an increase in density toward the center.

Second, most large galaxies seem to have a supermassive black hole at their center. Under the right conditions if there is a lot of matter falling into such a black hole then it can give rise to extremely energetic phenomena. Depending on the details such phenomena are given different names, such as active galactic nuclei (AGNs) or quasars or blazars (which are now understood to be subsets of AGNs). These phenomena can sometimes outshine the light from all of the other stars in the galaxy, sometimes by orders of magnitude, but they are relatively uncommon and also usually depend on a fortuitous viewing angle.

Can plants get "cancer"?

They are made out of cells and exposed to UV rays nearly all the time. So why shouldn't the UV rays ionize their cell nucleus and corrupt the DNA?

Any complex multicellular organism can be suseptible to defects in cell proliferation causing individual cells or groups of cells to develop abnormally. In animals, these defects lead to tumour formation and cancer and plants develop tumours too which can be detrimental to how they function or develop. One crucial difference between plant and animal tumours is that, unlike many animal cells, plant cells are incapable of moving as they are fixed in a cell wall matrix. As such, the 'cancer' in plants is not able to spread to other parts of the organism and rarely kills.

So why do plants develops tumours? You asked in your question whether exposure to UV light could be a cause, but as far as I can find this is not the case. A vast majority of tumours developed by plants are caused by pathogens - specialised viruses and bacteria that invade plant cells and cause defects. One of the most common plant tumours are called Crown Galls which develop in the plant stems and are caused by a specific soil bacteria. Similarly, certain fungal diseases can also lead to the development of tumour like growths.

Certain plant varieties are also suspect to spontaneous tumour formation due to genetic disorders, particularly hybrid plants. Tobacco plants, for example, are one of the most suseptible to this and hybrid can be so over-run with tumours that flower and seed development is severely comporised.

Cell found in salamanders aids cell regrowth

Researchers have identified a cell that aids limb regrowth in Salamanders. Macrophages are a type of repairing cell that devour dead cells and pathogens, and trigger other immune cells to respond to pathogens. In humans, they're also important to muscle repair, which led Dr. James Godwin, of the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (ARMI) at Monash University, to research whether the macrophages found inside Salamanders are related to the animal's ability to regenerate limbs. Salamanders are unique in the vertebrate world as they're capable of repairing their hearts, tails, spinal cords, brain, and regrowing limbs. This makes them an obvious candidate for regenerative research. Godwin and the team at ARMI removed the macrophages the Salamanders and found that the animals were no longer able to regenerate limbs. He believes that the cells release chemicals that are vital to the Salamanders' regenerative powers. More research is needed to establish exactly how regeneration works, and Godwin is currently conducting experiments to investigate. "This really gives us somewhere to look for what might be secreted into the wound environment that allows for regeneration," he tells ABC News.

Although understanding the Salamander's abilities may one day lead to impossible-sounding feats like limb regeneration in humans, there are more-immediate benefits that could come from the research. Less ambitious goals such as scarless healing, could be attainable. "The long-term plan is that we'll know exactly what cocktail to add to a wound site to allow salamander-like regeneration under hospital conditions."

Alligator stem cells could offer tooth regeneration in humans

Humans naturally only have two sets of teeth – baby teeth and adult teeth. Ultimately, we want to identify stem cells that can be used as a resource to stimulate tooth renewal in adult humans who have lost teeth. But, to do that, we must first understand how they renew in other animals and why they stop in people,” Prof Chuong said.

Whereas most vertebrates can replace teeth throughout their lives, human teeth are naturally replaced only once, despite the lingering presence of a band of epithelial tissue called the dental lamina, which is crucial to tooth development.

Because alligators have well-organized teeth with similar form and structure as mammalian teeth and are capable of lifelong tooth renewal, the team reasoned that they might serve as models for mammalian tooth replacement.

“Alligator teeth are implanted in sockets of the dental bone, like human teeth. They have 80 teeth, each of which can be replaced up to 50 times over their lifetime, making them the ideal model for comparison to human teeth,” explained study lead author Prof Ping Wu, also from the University of Southern California.

The team found that each alligator tooth is a complex unit of three components – a functional tooth, a replacement tooth, and the dental lamina – in different developmental stages. The tooth units are structured to enable a smooth transition from dislodgement of the functional, mature tooth to replacement with the new tooth. Identifying three developmental phases for each tooth unit, the researchers conclude that the alligator dental laminae contain what appear to be stem cells from which new replacement teeth develop.

“Stem cells divide more slowly than other cells,” said co-author Prof Randall Widelitz of the University of Southern California.

“The cells in the alligator’s dental lamina behaved like we would expect stem cells to behave. In the future, we hope to isolate those cells from the dental lamina to see whether we can use them to regenerate teeth in the lab.”

The team also intends to learn what molecular networks are involved in repetitive renewal and hope to apply the principles to regenerative medicine in the future.

Human cells cloned for the first time ever

An international team of scientists announced today that for the first time ever, they were able to create new human stem cells by cloning older, fully mature human cells. The process cannot be used to create full human clones, as the scientists involved were quick to point out, but it does allow for cells to be grown to fit specific functions within an individual's body — resulting in new, patient-specific liver cells or heart cells that actually pulse on their own, for example.

Eventually, scientists hope to refine the process to the point it could be used to help treat disease and even create whole custom organs, but that is likely to be several years away at the earliest. "While there is much work to be done in developing safe and effective stem cell treatments, we believe this is a significant step forward in developing the cells that could be used in regenerative medicine," said Shoukhrat Mitalipov, the leader of the research team and a senior scientist at the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC), in a news release.

The research team was led by scientists at the Oregon Health & Science University, who used a technique similar to the one that created Dolly the sheep, the first mammal cloned from adult cells, back in 1996. In a basic sense, this method involves taking an adult cell from a patient's body, sucking out the central portion containing DNA (the nucleus), then injecting this material into an empty egg cell donated by another human volunteer. The genetic material from the adult cell tells the empty egg cell what type it should mature into.

The ice on Mt Everest are melting

A warming climate is melting the glaciers of Mount Everest, shrinking the frozen cloak of Earth’s highest peak by 13% in the last 50 years, researchers have found.

Rocks and natural debris previously covered by snow are appearing now as the snow line has retreated 590 feet, according to Sudeep Thakuri, a University of Milan scientist who led the research.

 Researchers said they believe the observed changes could be due to human-generated greenhouse gases altering global climate, although their research has not established a firm connection. 

Average temperatures have risen about 1 degree Fahrenheit since 1992, according data from the Nepal Climate Observatory stations and Nepal’s Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, the researchers found. Since 1992, precipitation has declined nearly four inches during the pre-monsoon and winter months, they found.

Earth's center is out of sync

We all know that the Earth rotates beneath our feet, but new research from ANU has revealed that the center of the Earth is out of sync with the rest of the planet, frequently speeding up and slowing down.

Associate Professor Hrvoje Tkalcic from the ANU College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and his team used earthquake doublets to measure the rotation speed of Earth's inner core over the last 50 years.

They discovered that not only did the inner core rotate at a different rate to the mantle the layer between the core and the crust that makes up most of the planet's interior but its rotation speed was variable. compared with the mantle, the inner core was rotating more quickly in the 1970s and 1990s, but slowed down in the 80s. The most dramatic acceleration has possibly occurred in the last few years, although further tests are needed to confirm that observation. Scientists have so far assumed the rotation rate of the inner core to be constant because they lacked adequate mathematical methods for interpreting the data, says Associate Professor Tkalcic. A new method applied to earthquake doublets – pairs of almost identical earthquakes that can occur a couple of weeks to 30 or 40 years apart – has provided the solution.

"It's stunning to see that even 10, 20 or 30 years apart, these earthquakes look so similar. But each pair differs very slightly, and that difference corresponds to the inner core. We have been able to use that small difference to reconstruct a history of how the inner core has rotated over the last 50 years,"  Professor Hrvoje Tkalcic said. 

Analyses of sediment cores show that Arctic summers 3.6 million years ago were a good 8 degrees C warmer than they are today.

The Arctic wasn't always covered in ice. Samples of sediment layers beneath a frozen lake show this region used to be a lot warmer and may thaw out again in the future. The work is in the journalScience. 

El'gygytgyn, a Russian lake 100 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle, contains layers of sediment that date back to the lake's formation 3.6 million years ago. Analyses of sediment cores have revealed that back then summers reached about 15 to 16 degrees Celsius, a good 8 degrees warmer than modern Arctic summers. These warm temperatures, which supported plants like Douglas fir and hemlock, lasted until about 2.2 million years ago.

Using a sediment core as a detailed history of climate change, scientists can see how the forested Arctic gradually became covered in ice and snow. These changes help us understand details about the development of Ice Ages. In addition, the sediment comes from a window of time during the Pliocene Epoch, when greenhouse gas levels were only slightly higher than they are today. Such sensitivity to small carbon dioxide changes hint at a warm Arctic future.

University of Georgia developed a way to make energy through photosynthesis

There's a more efficient way to harvest energy from the backyard than by wiring up hapless critters. Researchers at the University of Georgia have proof: they've discovered a way to generate electricity from plants through hijacking the photosynthesis process. By altering the proteins inside a plant cell's thylakoids, which store solar energy, scientists can intercept electrons through a carbon nanotube backing that draws them away before they're used to make sugar. While the resulting power isn't phenomenal, it's still two orders of magnitude better than previous methods, according to the university. The protein modification method may have a rosier future, as well: the team believes that it could eventually compete with solar cells, producing green energy in a very literal sense.

Ammonia Leak on ISS ‘Very Serious,’ Emergency Spacewalks Scheduled

At the risk of starting your Friday of with bad news, an ammonia leak in the system that cools the International Space Station may be more severe than initially thought, say officials familiar with the situation. Ground crews are working overtime to try and determine the cause of the leak, and emergency spacewalks  that will let astronauts on board diagnose — and ideally fix — the problem are being scheduled  for the coming days.

The leak in power channel 2B — where energy collected by the station’s solar arrays is converted into power for the spacecraft — was known to ISS crew members and ground control, but slow enough that it wasn’t a concern. That was the situation until last night, when the rotation of the solar panels seemed to worsen the leak. Crew members were first alerted when they began to see white flakes drifting near the station, a sign that ammonia was not staying in the cooling system where it belonged. This morning saw power channel 2B shut down, transferring its critical responsibilities to another channel and diminishing the station’s power production capabilities by more than 12%.

A slow leak in the 2B channel has been apparent since 2006, but the amount of ammonia escaping the space station was so minimal as to not require immediate attention. A spacewalk last November was meant to repair the leak, which was likely caused by a tiny asteroid or debris strike like the one that punctured the station’s solar panels recently.

We’re probably not at the point where anyone needs hold a good thought for the ISS crew yet — after all, there’s a reason these guys get to go to the ISS and we don’t. They’re pretty well-equipped to handle this kind of thing, whereas I would probably just be rocking back and forth slowly in zero gravity right now. Instead of that, flight engineers Tom Marshburn and Chris Cassidy will be spacewalking out to attempt to divert ammonia flow around the leak and restore the power channel to working order tomorrow. Yes, because they’re better men than I, but I don’t think it’s necessary to point that out.

What is the centre of the milky way and is it a threat?

When you look at a picture of our milky way some of you may think to your selves. What is that very bright light in the middle of our milky way and why is our milky way in a spiral motion.

Well its because there is super massive black hole Called Sagittarius A*. most of us know that black holes spin around in a circle motion that is why our milky way is in a spiral Shape.Black holes have a very strong gravitation pull witch pulls all the stars into the back hole this is why it is so bright.Your probably wandering why we cant see the blinding light also is that black hole a threat to us.Well its not a threat to us don't worry we are 28,000 light years away from the center of the milky way. Also we can see the arm of the milky way sometime but rarely.The reason we cant see the center of the milky way is because there is a mass amount of stars,dust and other materials that are light years wide.

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50 years time?

Our earth is a delicate planet, one of a kind that supports life. However in 50 years time is it all going to be the same? Its scary thinking about mass extinction but why is it now why wasn't it earlier why in our generation? well the answer is that we are burning fossil  fuels to quick. Also we are putting so much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere That our planet is going threw serious changes that we are not doing much about. scientist recon we have about 30 to 40 years of fossil fuels left till we have a serious problem what will we do when it runs out?

What will earth look like in 50 years no one knows but people have theories.The earth is very delicate and we are destroying it.

ESA gives go ahead for satalite that can measure forests weight

The spacecraft will carry a novel radar system that is able to sense the trunks and big branches of trees from orbit.

Scientists will use Biomass to calculate the amount of carbon stored in the world's forests, and to monitor for any changes over the course of the five-year mission.

The satellite's data should help researchers understand better the role trees play in the cycling of carbon on Earth and, by extension, the influence this has on the planet's climate.

"Biomass will give us unprecedented knowledge on the state of the world's forests and how they are changing," said Prof Shaun Quegan, who was one of the key proposers of the mission. 

Biomass will be a 1.2-tonne satellite at launch, meaning it will probably go up on Esa's new Vega rocket, which successfully conducted only its second flight overnight.

Its sole instrument will send down a 70cm radar pulse that will penetrate the leafy canopies of forests but scatter back off the large woody parts of trees. It will sense the volume of material at a resolution of about 200m. In essence, it will be able to weigh the amount of carbon tied up in the world's forests.

Arctic Ocean is rapidly acidifying

Scientists from Norway's Center for International Climate and Environmental Research monitored widespread changes in ocean chemistry in the region.

They say even if CO2 emissions stopped now, it would take tens of thousands of years for Arctic Ocean chemistry to revert to pre-industrial levels.  They forecast major changes in the marine ecosystem, but say there is huge uncertainty over what those changes will be.

It is well known that CO2 warms the planet, but less well-known that it also makes the alkaline seas more acidic when it is absorbed from the air. Absorption is particularly fast in cold water so the Arctic is especially susceptible, and the recent decreases in summer sea ice have exposed more sea surface to atmospheric CO2. 

The researchers say there is likely to be major change to the Arctic marine ecosystem as a result. Some key prey species like sea butterflies may be harmed. Other species may thrive. Adult fish look likely to be fairly resilient but the development of fish eggs might be harmed. It is too soon to tell.

New dinosaur found in China

A new dinosaur found in China may be the oldest of its kind and a crucial link between lizard-like dinosaurs and the feathered, late-period creatures that bore a closer resemblance to today's birds.

A team of international researchers led by James Clark, from the George Washington University, found a fossilized leg bone on the side of a stream in a remote part of Xinjiang province in the far northwestern corner of China. That's not much, but, amazingly, they found more of the small dinosaur's body a partial skeleton, a nearly complete skull, and a mandible. It is a new species, a basal member of the Coelurosauria family tree. Coelurosaurs are late-period dinosaurs that resembled birds as much as the typical dinosaurs we think of; it's possible all of them were feathered.

The researchers gave the dinosaur a name: Aorun zhaoi, after the Dragon King in the Chinese epic tale Journey to the West. It is the oldest known coelurosaur--though it died a youngster.

This particular animal had many very small, sharp teeth, which are very useful clues as to what this dinosaur ate and how it behaved. The researchers suspect it preyed on lizards and primitive shrew-like mammals--though since this one is estimated to be less than a year old, we don't really know much about how the adult of the species lived, or even how big it might have been.

Trees can make noises when short on water

Like a person gasping for air when it's in short supply, living trees make noises when they are running out of water, and a team of French scientists is a step closer to pinpointing the noises.

Lab experiments at Grenoble University in France have isolated ultrasonic pops, which are 100 times faster than what a human can hear, in slivers of dead pine wood bathed in a hydrogel to simulate the conditions of a living tree.

Researchers exposed the gel to an artificially dry environment and listened for the noises that occurred as air bubbles built up, similar to what occurs to trees during droughts. Air bubbles form when a tree is trying to suck moisture out of dry ground during droughts. As leaves on a tree collect carbon dioxide, they open their pores, a process that leaves them vulnerable to water loss.

Evaporation from the leaves pulls water up the trees in a state of tension. The tree vacuums up water from the ground through its root system, pulling it up through tubes. There are thousands of them in a typical tree, connected by pit membranes (sort of like a two-way valve). Tension in the xylem tubes increases in times of drought, then cavitates.Douglas firs and pine trees can repair this damage as frequently as every hour, said Katherine McCulloh, a plant ecophysiologist at Oregon State University, in a past Our Amazing Planet interview. The bubbles are deadly for other species, however, if the bubbles block the water's flow

In the video you are accelerating through the observable universe. This simulation took many years to program and create. The simulation incorporates the stars and the effect of gravity on each other.

EU to ban pesticides

The European Commission will restrict the use of pesticides linked to bee deaths by researchers, despite a split among EU states on the issue.

There is great concern across Europe about the collapse of bee populations.

Neonicotinoid chemicals in pesticides are believed to harm bees and the European Commission says they should be restricted to crops not attractive to bees and other pollinators. The UK did not support a ban - it argues that the science behind the proposal is inconclusive. It was among eight countries that voted against, while four abstained.

Wild species such as honey bees are said by researchers to be responsible for pollinating around one-third of the world's crop production.

There is heated debate about what has triggered the widespread decline in bee populations. Besides chemicals, many experts point to the parasitic varroa mite, viruses that attack bees and neglect of hives. 

Some restrictions are already in place for neonicotinoids in France, Germany, Italy and Slovenia.The three neonicotinoids are clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiametoxam.

Our planet's core is hotter that originally thought

New measurements suggest the Earth's inner core is far hotter than prior experiments suggested, putting it at 6,000C - as hot as the Sun's surface. Measurements in the early 1990s of iron's "melting curves" - from which the core's temperature can be deduced - suggested a core temperature of about 5,000C. 

The solid iron core is actually crystalline, surrounded by liquid.But the temperature at which that crystal can form had been a subject of long-running debate.Experiments outlined in Science used X-rays to probe tiny samples of iron at extraordinary pressures to examine how the iron crystals form and melt.Seismic waves captured after earthquakes around the globe can give a great deal of information as to the thickness and density of layers in the Earth, but they give no indication of temperature.That has to be worked out either in computer models that simulate the Earth's insides, or in the laboratory.

The Assassin bug and its peculiar hunting techniques

The assassin bug Has a extra-ordinary way of hunting spiders: Assassin bugs plucked the  spider web's silk threads that replicate the vibrations of a fly or other insect, causing the fooled spider to head towards the assassin bug. Once within reach, the bug slowly tapped the spider with its antennae before lunging and stabbing the lured arachnid with its sharp snout. The team from Macquarie University, Australia, said the behaviour - known as aggressive mimicry - was one of two strategies employed by the bug (Stenolemus bituberus) to trap its prey. The other involved "stalking" spiders, where the assassin bug slowly approaches the unsuspecting victim until within striking range. 

The Brazilian wandering spider

The Brazilian wandering spider is one of the most dangerous spiders known to man. It's venom contains a potent neurotoxin, known as PhTx3, which acts as a broad-spectrum calcium channel blocker that inhibits glutamate release, calcium uptake and also glutamate uptake in neural synapses. At deadly concentrations, this neurotoxin causes loss of muscle control and breathing problems, resulting in paralysis and eventual asphyxiation. In addition, the venom causes intense pain and inflammation following a bite due to an excitatory effect the venom has on the serotin 5-HT4 receptors of sensory nerves. This sensory nerve stimulation causes a release of neuropeptides such as substance P which triggers inflammation and pain. Thankfully there is an anti venom so not many fatalities occur.  

10 Amazing science facts

1. The Earth spins at 1,000 mph but it travels through space at an incredible 67,000 mph
2. Every year over one million earthquakes shake the Earth. 
3. To escape the Earth’s gravity a rocket need to travel at 7 miles a second
4. Our oldest radio broadcasts of the 1930s have already travelled past 100,000 stars.
5. 32/ Christian Barnard performed the first heart transplant in 1967 – the patient lived for 18 days.
6. Englishman Roger Bacon invented the magnifying glass in 1250
7. Around a million, billion neutrinos from the Sun will pass through your body while you read this sentence.
8. ‘Wireless’ communications took a giant leap forward in 1962 with the launch of Telstar, the first satellite capable of relaying telephone and satellite TV signals.
9. One million, million, million, million, millionth of a second after the Big Bang the Universe was the size of a pea.
10. The Earth is 4.56 billion years old…the same age as the Moon and the Sun.

Eastern Emerald Elysia

The eastern emerald elysia is a specie of sea slug that is found along the eastern coast of the U.S and only eats algae, it has been known for a long time that the Eastern Emerald Elysia had a special relationship with the algae but it has only been recently discovered that the Eastern Emerald Elysia uses the algae's genes for photosynthesis.
The sea slug eats the algae to absorb it's chloroplasts (the cells that do the photosynthesizing) but in order to do this the chloroplasts need a whole new set of specialized cells, but the slug can lift genes from the algae which allows the slug to make the Proteins it's self. The slugs also pass on the genes to its offspring and they only need to eat for two weeks of the year and the other fifty they're just soaking in the rays.

Planets found that could sustain life

Scientists are reporting a bounty of new worlds that may be capable of sustaining life, with the discovery of three exoplanets slightly larger than Earth orbiting within their stars’ habitable zone.

These findings come from NASA’s Kepler spacecraft, a dedicated planet-hunting mission currently wrapping up four productive years in which it has spotted more than 100 planets outside our solar system. The telescope stares at about 150,000 stars simultaneously, watching for a tiny dip in their glow, which could indicate that a planet has passed in front and blocked their light. Though the majority of Kepler’s discoveries are Jupiter-size worlds, the mission has lately been homing in on planets the size and temperature of our own, suggesting they may be good places to find life.

Two of the newly discovered potentially habitable exoplanets orbit the same star, Kepler-62, which is located about 1,200 light-years away. The system resembles our own, with five planets total, though the other three worlds are all too close to the star to contain life as we know it. The two farthest planets, Kepler-62e and Kepler-62f, have 1.6 and 1.4 times the radius of Earth and go around their parent start every 122 and 267 days, respectively.

Because their parent star is only about two-thirds the size of our sun, the estimated surface temperatures of the two worlds is -3 degrees and -65 degrees Celsius. While that sounds very chilly, the calculation doesn’t take into account a potential atmosphere, which would act like a warm blanket, heating the planets up and possibly producing temperatures where liquid water could exist.

There is a great deal of uncertainty with the new worlds and scientists are careful about drawing any conclusions. The Kepler team members don’t know if the planets ”have a rocky composition, an atmosphere, or water,” they write in a paper available Apr. 18 in Science. Unless those properties can be found out, they “cannot determine whether the exoplanets are in fact habitable.”

The other new world, reported today in The Astrophysical Journal, is called Kepler-69c. It takes 242 days to go around a star named Kepler-69 and has a radius about 1.7 times that of our own planet. Its surface temperature is estimated to be a balmy 27 degrees Celsius, basically beach-going weather. Given its size, it’s unknown exactly how Earth-like conditions on its surface might be.

We're running out of helium

Helium is the second-lightest element. And it is one of the rarest elements on planet earth. It's the most widely-used of the inert gases. Used in arc welding, diving, growing silicon crystals, and as a coolant in MRI scanners.

In addition to being rare, helium is a non-renewable resource. The helium that we have was produced by the radioactive decay of rock, long ago. Once the gases is leaked into the atmosphere, it's light enough to escape the Earth's gravitational field so it bleeds off into space, never to return. We may run out of helium within 25-30 years because it's being consumed so freely.
Without helium the magnets in the large Hadron collider will not be able to work.

Flash eating bacteria (Necrotizing fasciitis)

Necrotizing fasciitis is an extremely rare infection of the lower layers of the skin. Over 70% of cases are recorded in patients with one of the following clinical situations: immunosuppression, diabetes, alcoholism/drug abuse/smoking, malignancies, and chronic systemic diseases. It occasionally occurs in people with an apparently normal general condition. The bacteria don't necessarily eat the bacteria they release toxins This toxin is capable of activating T-cells non-specifically, which causes the overproduction of cytokines and severe systemic illness (Toxic shock syndrome). In the early stages, signs of inflammation may not be apparent if the bacteria are deep within the tissue. If they are not deep, signs of inflammation, such as redness and swollen or hot skin, develop very quickly. Skin color may progress to violet, and blisters may form, with subsequent death of tissues 

Note: There will be no picture because the infection is way too graphic.

Shutdown of thermohaline circulation

A shutdown or slowdown of the thermohaline circulation is a postulated effect of global warming. There is some speculation  that global warming could, via a shutdown or slowdown of the thermohaline circulation, trigger localized cooling in the North Atlantic and lead to cooling, or lesser warming, in that region. This would particularly affect areas such as the British Isles and the Nordic countries, which are warmed by the North Atlantic drift. The chances of this occurring are unclear but there is some evidence for the stability of the Gulf Stream but a possible weakening of the North Atlantic drift and there is evidence of warming in northern Europe and nearby seas, rather than the reverse. In coupled Atmosphere-Ocean General Circulation Models the THC tends to weaken somewhat rather than stop, and the warming effects outweigh the cooling, even over Europe. 

This would also Wipe out a lot of the deep living sea animals because the thermohaline circulation is also what brings oxygen down to the depths of the ocean, also they entirety of the sea will be a huge stagnant pool.

A 40 year old self sustaining Eco-system!

In 1960 a man called David Latimer planted a spider wort seed int a pile of compost and gave it a pint of water, 12 years later he gave it another pint of water and tightly sealed the carboy shut as an experiment. 

Having access to light through the glass, it continues to photosynthesize. The water builds up on the inside of the bottle as condensation and then drips back down on the plants in a miniature version of the water cycle. As leaves die, they fall off and rot at the bottom producing the carbon dioxide and nutrients required for more plants to grow.

It has occupied the same spot under his stairs in Cranleigh, Surrey for 27 years. He rotates it every now and then so it receives light evenly from a nearby window.

Climate change

• Humans release massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by burning coal, gas and oil. We also like to destroy natural carbon sinks such as the amazon rain forest and replace them with other things that produce carbon dioxide such as cattle. Planet earth has seen these massive increases of carbon dioxide before and they have all caused mass disaster, also what scientists cant get their head around is what apocalypse will strike first.
• Growing conditions could drastically change because of climate change and this is a really bad thing, most of the wealth of people are distributed where the better growing conditions are and as the world continues to warm these excellent growing places could become lifeless hellscapes. And by the time we reach something as subtle as a three degree increase in global temperatures could completely stop most of the food growing, and what always comes with high amounts of hunger and drought well you get famine and its counterpart war. As you may know the earth's human population is seven billion and every one of those wants to eat food and when they get really hungry they start hurling little hunks of metal through one another's bodys.
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• So next time you are going anywhere maybe it would be a good idea to walk, cycle or even take public transport.

Prince Rupert's drop

The prince Rupert's drop is a truly amazing thing.When molten glass hits cold water, its outer surface cools rapidly and shrinks as it solidifies. Since the center is still fluid, it can flow to adjust to the outer shell’s smaller size. As that center eventually cools and solidifies, it also shrinks, but now the outer shell is already solid and can’t change its shape to accommodate the smaller core. The result of this is a high amount of internal pressure, as the inside pulls the outside from all directions the glass is set to release a lot of energy. If you break the thin glass at the tail, a chain reaction travels like a shock wave through the drop. As each section breaks, it releases enough energy to break the next section, and so on, shattering the whole drop in less than a millisecond. At the same time The glass can be extremely strong aswell glass breaks when tiny scratches pull apart and spread into fractures. Since the surface is compressed by internal stress, scratches can’t grow, and the glass is very difficult to break.