A witness in Perthshire has reported seeing two very large lights maneuvering off the coast of Scotland, approximately 24 hours after a meteor streaked across the British Isles, causing hundreds of calls to police. The description of the lights makes them sound like approaching aircraft running their landing lights, but the story comments that there was no air traffic in the area.
read more
Evolution doesn’t happen overnight: large changes in body size take a long time. There have been increases and decreases in mammal size following the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Now biologists estimate that a mouse-to-elephant size change would take at least 24 million generations, based on the maximum speed of evolution in the fossil record.
PhysOrg.com quotes researcher Alistair Evans as saying, "A less dramatic change, such as rabbit-sized to elephant-sized, takes 10 million generations."Huge sea mammals, such as whales, took about half that number of generations to reach their current size.
read more
Current advances in electroencephalographic (EEG) brain-wave detection technology make it possible for someone wearing a helmet with special sensors that broadcast your brain’s waves to be able to tell what state of alertness you’re in. Someday they may be able to do this without the need for a helmet. What comes next–reading our thoughts?
read more
Humans pump thousands of tons of vapor from the metallic element mercury into the atmosphere each year, and it can remain suspended for long periods before being changed into a form that is easily removed from the atmosphere.
New research shows that the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere work to transform elemental mercury into oxidized mercury, which can easily be deposited into lakes and oceans and ultimately enter the food chain. Mercury-filled fish are not safe to eat.
read more