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The Vinland Map is a drawing of Iceland, Greenland and the northeastern coast of North America that has been dated to the mid-15th century?unless it’s a forgery. If it’s real, it means that Norse explorers visited North America long before Columbus. The map, which is worth $20 million, was discovered in the 1950s and is kept at Yale University. “Many scholars have agreed that if the Vinland Map is authentic, it is the only existing cartographic representation of North America prior to Columbus,” says scholar Jacqueline Olin. Recent discoveries show it may be authentic.
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Christof Koch wants to find where consciousness lies inside what he calls our “zombie” self: the part of our brain that works automatically, so that our lungs breathe, our heart beats, our eyes blink, and we walk and talk. And he wants to know the purpose of consciousness, since we can obviously exist perfectly well, as zombies, without it.

In an extraordinary article, Margaret Wertheim quotes him in LA Weekly as saying, “When you walk, you don?t think, ‘lift leg, move leg forward, put leg down.’ You just walk! If you had to consciously think through that stuff, you?d never get anywhere?You drive to work on autopilot, move your eyes, brush your teeth, tie your shoelaces, talk, and all the other myriad chores that constitute daily life.”
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Lisa Morgan, the geologist leading a US Geological Survey team studying a bulge beneath Yellowstone Lake says, “it could be the precursor to a hydrothermal explosion.” Hydrothermal explosions take place when water is superheated by lava and they can be extremely violent.

Geothermal activity and earth movements have been increasing in Yellowstone in recent months. In August, a magnitude 4.4 earthquake struck the area, and in July parts of a trail that passes the Norris Geyser Basin were shut because ground temperatures reached 200 degrees.
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