If you think the air is hazier than usual, you’re right: a massive cloud of dust containing bits of rock, dinosaur fossils and even particles of mummies is floating over the United States. It also contains carbon dioxide, arsenic, sulfur, ozone, flurocarbons and the greenhouse gases that causeglobal warming. “There’s hundreds of tons of dust in it,” says Russ Schnell of NOAA.
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On May 12 at 7:30PM Pacific time, extraordinary informationabout a piece of unknown material is going to be presented for the first time, and in a highly unique way. Instead of having to go to a conference, viewers will be able to watch live over the internet. Instead of paying $50 or more for tickets, the conference cost will be $9.99. You can sign up right now to watch either live over the internet on May 12 or during the following week, at your leisure.
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A prehistoric skull from 7,000 years ago has been found in a middle eastern settlement dating back to the stone age. The skull shows evidence that a Stone Age surgeon may have carried out a primitive form of brain surgery and that the patient actually lived after the operation.
Dr. Henrike Kiesewettes, a German anthropologist who discovered the skull, believes that this was an unsuccessful attempt to remove a brain tumor. “Although there were no surgery instruments at that time, the skull was opened with the help of sharp stones,” she says. “First they removed theskin and then made a hole on the right side of the skull for the operation, which can be called one of the oldest major surgeries in the world.
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Mad Cow Disease was probably spread to England by an infected antelope, according to Roger Morris, a professor of animal health at Massey University in New Zealand. The infected animal was probably imported in the mid-1970s by a safari park in southwest England.
It got into the food chain when it was ground up for bone meal that was fed to a herd of cattle that became infected and were later ground up for feed themselves.
Other researchers believe that BSE was spread through genetic mutation or from animal feed made from the remains of sheep infected with a similar disease called scrapie, but Morris said he was “almost certain” it was spread by wild game.
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