Scientists have discovered what the 5,300-year-old Iceman they call Oetzi ate for his last two meals, and they reveal that our Stone Age ancestors were not starving, by any means. Oetzi had venison just before his death, and had earlier eaten cereals, vegetables, and ibex meat. The mummified remains of the Iceman were uncovered by a melting glacier in the Italian Alps in 1991.

At first, no one could figure out exactly how Oetzi died, but a flint arrowhead was recently discovered lodged in his back, along with a deep wound in his right hand, so it?s thought he was murdered or died after a violent fight. The injury to the back of the shoulder indicates he was shot as he fled the confrontation.
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The 1997 Hong Kong flu, which killed one third of its victims, was caused by a single mutation that allowed the virus to disable part of the body’s immune system?and it could happen again. “If this mutated gene is put into an ordinary strain of flu you turn it into a nasty virus,” says Robert Webster, of St Jude Children’s Hospital. “It provides an explanation for the virulence of the H5N1 Hong Kong epidemic and possibly for the 1918 epidemic.”
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In the midst of all our worry about global warming, we seem to have forgotten about the ozone hole. Now there’s good news that shows how the right response CAN make a difference: The ozone hole over Antarctica may close within 50 years, because the level of ozone-depleting CFCs in the atmosphere is declining.

Australian researcher Paul Fraser, who monitors CFCs from the island of Tasmania, says, “The major culprit in the production of the ozone hole is CFCs and they have started to decline in the lower atmosphere. We think the ozone hole will recover by about 2050.” Ozone-depleting gases in the upper atmosphere were at their peak in 2000, but have been declining since then. It takes around 11 years for changes in CFC emissions to be reflected in the ozone layer.
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U.K. Crop circle investigator Lucy Pringle, who creates our beautiful crop circle calendars and postcards, talks about her research into the “Alien Face” and “Computer Disk” crop formation, the most controversial of the recent season. She takes you step-by-step into how the formation was discovered and the “disk” decoded, so you can make up your mind about whether or not this is a ?real? crop circle, click here.

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