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A newly detected disk around the sun could narrow down our search for other star systems that might have planets orbiting around them.

Astronomers with the European Space Agency say they?ve found the first direct evidence of the bright dust ring, which is located beyond the orbit of Saturn. Young stars are known to have thick bands of dust, gas and debris. This dust gradually disappears into deep space, so if an older star such as the sun still has a dusty ring, some hidden source must be replenishing it. Replenishing the ring around the sun takes 50 tons of dust each second.
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Bruce Ames, of the University of California fed elderly rats acetyl-L-carintine and the anti-oxidant alpha-lipoic acid for a month. Both chemicals are normally found in mammal cells, and both are sold in health food stores. Then he tested the animals for memory and stamina. ?With these two supplements together, these old rats got up and did the macarena,? he says. ?The brain looks better, they are full of energy: everything we looked at looks more like a young animal.?

His colleague Tony Hagen, of Oregon State University, says, ?We also see a reversal in loss of memory. This is a dual track improvement that is significant and unique. This is really starting to explode and move out of the realm of basic research into people.?
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In the middle of the Palm Springs Desert in Southern California, the sun beats down mercilessly and harsh winds are so strong that rocks have been polished smooth by the sand. In the midst of all this grows a creosote bush could be the oldest living plant on the Earth.

Carbon dating tests are expected to show that this bush is even older than a gnarled clump of the same plant which almost 11,700 years old in the nearby Mojave Desert. The final test results will be available in a year.
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In Ecuador or Peru the air and water are sometimes a bit warmer and the waves are a bit higher. When that happens, it means the area has been hit by a ?Kelvin wave,? which means an El Nino is on the way.

?Kelvin waves are warm bumps in the Pacific Ocean,? says JPL oceanographer Bill Patzert. They form around Indonesia and travel east toward the Americas.?

El Ni?os and Kelvin waves are both triggered by winds in the Pacific Ocean. Sometimes the trade winds slow down for a few days or weeks — researchers aren?t sure why — and warm water slides back across the Pacific toward the Americas. ?”That?s a Kelvin wave,? says Patzert.
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