The last ice age 13,000 years ago took hold in just one year, more than ten times quicker than previously believed, scientists have warned. Rather than a gradual cooling over a decade, the ice age plunged Europe into the deep freeze, German Research Centre for Geosciences at Potsdam said. Cold, stormy conditions causedby an abrupt shift in atmospheric circulation froze the continent almost instantly during the Younger Dryas less than 13,000 years ago – a very recent period on a geological scale.
The new findings will add to fears of a serious risk of this happening again in the UK and western Europe – and soon.Dr Achim Brauer, of the GFZ (GeoForschungs Zentrum) German Research Centre for Geosciences at Potsdam, and colleagues analysed annuallayers of sediments, called "varves", from a German crater lake. Each varve records a single year, allowing annual climate records from the region to be reconstructed.
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There have been indications that a cloning experiment to create a live Neanderthal may be on the cards.While the idea of using DNA from frozen mammoth remains to clone a live specimen is nothing new, the concept that we could do something similar to bring back extinct species of human such as Neanderthals may prove quite a shock to most people. Despite the technical and ethical difficulties inherent in such an endeavor, there are signs that some scientists may beconsidering research leading up to such an achievement and that they may need a surrogate human mother to deliver the child.Recently Harvard Medical School geneticist George Church was quoted as saying that eventually, an "adventurous female human" would be required to act as a surrogate mother in the birth of the first Neanderthal in 30,000 years.
It"s a topic that Church has talked about before, in 2009 he hinted at the possibility of cloning a "near-Neanderthal" when the Neanderthal genome was first reported. While the idea of reviving Neanderthals may sound farfetched, take for example the work of biologists to clone endangered or extinct non-human animals.
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Source: Technology Review
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DARPA is reaching out to the research community to help overcome difficulties in making this a reality.The main purpose of storing drones at the bottom of the sea is to make it possible to deploy them to remote parts of the world where it would be otherwise too difficult or expensive to set up a forward operating area. The drones would be stored within special pressure containers and would simply float to the surface when needed. The Pentagonhas been quick to emphasize that the drones would not be equipped with any weapons but would instead be used for reconnaissance purposes."Depending on the specific payload, the systems would provide a range of non-lethal but useful capabilities such as situational awareness, disruption, deception, networking, rescue, or any other mission that benefits from being pre-distributed and hidden," DARPA stated in a press release.
The U. S. Navy wants to pack aerial drones and otherintelligence-gathering technology into special containers built to withstand deep ocean pressures and distribute them around the world’s seas.
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Harvard University researchers believe it may soon be possible to regenerate human organs.The quest for a cure to ageing has taken another step forward following new research that has succeeded in reversing the ageing process in mice. The experimental treatment not only slowed down the ageing process but actually rejuvenated aged organs. In the future it is possible that similar treatments could be administered tohuman patients in an effort to combat age-related problems such as dementia, heart disease and strokes."This could lead to strategies that enhance the regenerative potential of organs as individuals age and so increase their quality of life," said study leader Ronald DePinho.
"Whether it serves to increase longevity is a question we are not yet in a position to answer." Harvard scientists were surprised that they saw a dramatic reversal, not just a slowingdown, of the ageing in mice. Now they believe they might be able to regenerate human organs.
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