Weekender – Time Signature: How Music Plays With Our Perceptions

February 15, 2014
We all know the feeling of being transported by a lilting melody, or enraptured by a rhapsody that seems to mute our senses to all else but its divine resonance. Yet we may not realise that music is a powerful... continued

NASA Images Suggest Flowing Water on Mars

February 14, 2014
The quest to confirm the existence of liquids on Mars has been ongoing for decades; it was known to host water billions of years ago and water is has been found to exist there in the form of ice, but... continued

The Why of This Brutal Winter

February 12, 2014
As predicted on Unknowncountry.com's Climate Watch last fall, this is proving to be a winter of extraordinary fury both in the United States and Europe. England is experiencing the worst flooding in 250 years, and winter records are being broken... continued

Scientists Find “Fingerprint” of the Oldest Star in the Universe

February 11, 2014
At 13.7 billion years old, the universe is inconceivably ancient. As new stars are born every day, its cosmic inhabitants are constantly changing, but scientists have now discovered the oldest star existing in space. The old timer was identified by... continued

Weekender: Is Our Limited Understanding Preventing Us From Recognizing Alien Life Forms?

February 8, 2014
The search for extraterrestrial life has been an ongoing quest for decades, but finding alien life relies on our ability to recognize it. Is there any guarantee that other life forms would manifest in a form that we would immediately... continued

Fracking Threatens to Drain Water Reserves and Exacerbate Droughts

February 7, 2014
Yet more adverse side effects of fracking have been identified, as new research indicates that it could threaten water supplies in drought-prone areas. Fracking is a controversial method of extracting gas reserves from underground seams, using high pressure water jets... continued

Massive Glacier in Rapid Meltdown Could Raise Seas to Unprecedented Levels

February 6, 2014
A recent study has indicated that the Jakobshavn Glacier in Greenland is experiencing a rapid melt that threatens to raise sea levels by up to one centimeter. The glacier, which is thought to have yielded the iceberg that ended the... continued

Olive Oil Could Help To Prevent Breast Cancer

February 5, 2014
The benefits of eating olive oil have been lauded by health professionals for years, but a recent study could provide a new incentive for us to add it into our diet. A study at the Houston Methodist hospital in Texas... continued

Surveillance Technologies May Soon Make Anonymity Impossible

February 4, 2014
It is no secret that, in civilised society, "Big Brother" is very likely to be watching us whenever we venture into public places and, thanks to facial recognition software utilised by retail outlets, "Big Brother" is not only watching, but... continued

Weekender: Can Science Locate “Adam”, the Earth’s First Man?

February 1, 2014
According to the Bible, the first human man ever to walk the Earth was Adam, created by God and partnered by his female counterpart Eve. Norse mythology shares a similar concept of a deity-created man and woman, though in Norse... continued